Crimson Spiral
by Arrysa
Summary: With Nana's death, 10 yrs old Tsuna suddenly developed an unhealthy coping mechanism. Years later Reborn suddenly appeared and he learned about the Mafia "I am not going to be a Mafia Boss. Never! They killed my mother!" What's a stressed and confused boy to do when Reborn starts to meddle with his life?
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Crimson Spiral**

 **Warning:** **Implication of rape / child prostitution / child abuse are mentioned**. I am maintaining this as rated **T** for **Teen and Up**. And also there is no character bashing in here they all just have poor communication skills. This chapter is the first chapter or you could take this as the prologue because it contains the foundation of this story and gibberish trash that I should get out before I start the story properly. **See a/n below for more information/clarification**.

' _Thoughts'_ – for thought

"Dialogue" – for dialogue

 _Emphasis_ – for emphasis

 _(anything enclosed here)_ – is flashbacks/memories/illusions/sudden remembrance/whatever you call it and it is all base on that character's pov so misinterpretation is a given.

 **November 11, 2016:** This chapter is now **Beta'ed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_ (The first ever beta-reader I asked for help. Thank you. *insert smiley*)

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! So please **read** and **review** please!

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~ **Crimson Spiral~**

 **Chapter 1**

He was Sawada Tsunayoshi, but everyone called him Dame-Tsuna.

 _("Dame-Tsuna tripped on his feet again!"_

 _Laughs._

" _Just how many brain cells does he have?"_

 _Another laugh._

" _Silly question! Of course it's none! He is Dame-Tsuna, after all!"_

 _More jeering and laughter.)_

 _("Dame-Tsuna is even afraid of a Chihuahua!"_

 _Snickers._

" _Seriously? A Chihuahua? He really is dame!"_

 _Laughter._

" _I know, right?!"_

 _More laughter.)_

 _("Hey, did you hear?"_

" _Hear what?"_

 _Snickers._

" _Dame-Tsuna got 5 again on another quiz!"_

 _More snickers._

" _There really isn't anything Dame-Tsuna can do...Oh wait, there is one!" Raised eyebrows. After a second, the one who said those words finally answered their silent question. "Dame-Tsuna is always good at being dame!"_

 _Then laughter._

" _That's mean, but you're right!"_

 _More laughter.)_

He was Dame-Tsuna. He was always no good with everything he does. His life sucked. He had no friends. He had no father because his father was working as an oil construction worker around the world, so he was rarely at home. He only had his mother and he was content with that. His mother was… _is_ loving and kind and she was all he needed. He was happy with it, even if other children pushed him around for not having a father and for being no good. He was Dame-Tsuna. He accepted that and Nana, his mother, his parent, was a constant in his life. Nana was his mother and was always with him. His mother always loved him, despite all his faults, despite his existence being a continuing disappointment. She was with him until…

 _("No! Not Tsu-kun! Please, not my son!"_

 _Trembling lips, a quivering shivering body pressed against him. A blindfold took away his sight, hands tied together._

" _Take me! Take me instead! Please, spare my Tsu-kun!"_

 _A tight hold embracing him._

" _Not my son! Please!"_

 _A scream, then a cold hand gripped him, forcing him away from his mother._

" _Mom!" he screamed and thrashed, not caring about his attacker, only focusing on the warmth of his mother, even if he couldn't see anything through the blindfold on his eyes. "Let me go! Mom! Mom!"_

" _Tsu-kun!" his mother yelled. Then the cold hand on him vanished. And his mother's warmth spread on him once again._

" _Mom...Mom..." He sobbed._

" _Shh...Shh...It'll be alright, Tsu-kun. I won't let them hurt you." He sobbed more. His mother slowly let him go and he felt his mother unknot his blindfold, his mother's hand trembling from the action._

 _Then he heard a bang and the blindfold started to slip off a little – it still wasn't enough to see anything, but he could process two horrible actions: his mother's fragile hand slowly let him go and the warm body pressed onto him before falling sideways with a thud. The warmth was gone._

" _...Mom?" Growing palpable silence became dawning horror. The blindfold on him came completely undone and then he only saw one thing. His mother's prawn body was lying on her side in an uncomfortable position and the blood staining the floor ran down her right temple down, making a gory mess of a red puddle._

" _MOM!")_

…She wasn't here anymore.

His mother died, _killed_ when he was only ten years old. He didn't know why, but knew his always-gone _father_ was the reason. Their attacker wanted to extract revenge on his father, so he wanted to kill them. It was his father's fault that his mother died. Iemitsu told him, but a part of him still felt guilty because he was there when it happened and he wasn't able to protect his mother. It is his fault, but Iemitsu said it wasn't, so he shifted the blame on his father.

Since then, his father never came back, which didn't make any actual difference. He was then left alone in Namimori. All because he made his father go away, shooing anyone that was trying to force him to live with them because his father said so, or declining his father's half-hearted effort of making him go to Italy with him.

 _("It was your fault Mom died!" he screamed at his father and he punched him in the face albeit weakly and shakily. "Mom died because of you!" he repeated, yet those words were also directed at himself. It was his fault his mother died. "Go away and never come back!")_

It had been three years since then. Three years of loneliness. Three years since he last saw his dear mother. And three years of knowing that some people were observing him and he just knew it was his father's doing. Maybe it was a way of knowing if he was still alive and breathing.

But he was small and before it all happened (before his mother's…), he was already very agile for his age, which was needed for running away from bullies. He could outrun those people spying on him. One summer, for the first time and after a month since his mother's death, the ten year old brunet did it. He tried to run. The chase had been sloppy and he was almost caught and brought back home until he decided to run away from Namimori to Tokyo.

After all these years, his father still asked him – on the phone – where he went, where he kept running away to, but he was tightlipped about it, and his father couldn't do anything about it.

No one knew what he was doing in Tokyo. Idiot father didn't know even when he hired those spies on him. Anyway, he was alone, so he should just do what he wanted in his life. His mother once told him to do what he wanted without any regret. So he was damn going to do what he desired, but a part of his mind, a great part of his heart, knew that it wasn't really what he wanted.

He just hadn't realized it yet.

* * *

When he ran away from Namimori to Tokyo, he managed to shake off the spies. He didn't know what he was actually there for. He just wanted to run away from anything, to forget the pitying glances and the jeering of his schoolmates. He ran away to Tokyo with the few clothes in his backpack and enough money for his expenses, but without any plan whatsoever on what he would do once he arrived. However, upon arriving, he was afraid of the strangers who looked at him with confusion, curiosity and wariness. There were a lot of people walking around and he didn't know where to go. So he ran on the nearest alley and hid. That was when he saw a lady on that same alley.

 _("What are you doing here?" The woman - no the lady, she seemed to be in her early 20's – walked towards him like a predator, just like his bullies. The lady's voice was loud and she sounded angry. It made him whimper and back away into the wall._

 _The lady stared at him and then scowled, "Che. A small fry." She stopped walking towards him and instead walked to the opposite wall, leaning against it as if she owned the place._

 _He remained silent, waiting for the lady to hurt him, but minutes passed by and it didn't happen. Feeling baffled by it, he nervously asked in a small voice, "W-Why won't you…h-hurt me?"_

 _She glared at him, making him cower. "It's no fun to hurt a small fry like you." Her words were dismissive. And the silence stretched even more._

 _He stares at the lady with a frightened look, but he slowly walked towards her, not even knowing why he was compelled to talk with the lady. She just felt familiar…Ah! She had the same brown color of hair. The locks were long hair, pulled upward into a bun. With the same beautiful face with sharp knowing brown eyes, she looks like his…mother, but still vastly different in the way she held herself. It made it easy to overlook any resemblance._

" _T-That's good to hear then…" he stuttered once again, his eyes darting from the wall to the people walking outside the alley and then back to the person leaning on the wall._

" _What is it, brat?" she scowled in annoyance when he kept throwing glances towards her and glared at him in irritation, making him squeak in fear._

" _N-N-Nothing..!"_

 _The lady glared at him and then grumbled under her breath, but he could still hear it. "Weird kid." But it wasn't laced with hate, only annoyance and that was even better than the usual taunting and jeering his bullies always gave him. The lady walked towards him, making him look at her with wide, startled eyes, and then she grabbed his arm harshly. He tried to shake off the hold, albeit weakly because she might hurt him if he struggled to much._

" _W-W-Wha…?"_

 _She dragged him by the arm. "You're coming with me, runaway brat." And he let her drag him, even if he was frightened, because the lady's voice made him feel warm in a strange way.)_

He learned lots when he went there and it wasn't all pleasant, but it was better than Namimori. No one looked at him twice in that place and he could have his own fun too.

* * *

Christmas break had come. Another school break. And it looked like the cold weather was a good thing for what he would do in Tokyo once again. Lots of people didn't have school or work, so many people to fool and to have fun with.

In Tokyo, he wasn't Dame-Tsuna. He was Tsuna, just Tsuna.

He didn't trip on air most of the time, but sometimes his clumsiness still reared its ugly head. He didn't get bullied by anyone too. He still had his fluffy gravity-defying hair, but he dyed it blond. His once caramel colored eyes glowed into a bright, captivating orange hue. He was wearing an orange shirt with a 27 logo on its front, a stripe of brown running along it. An orange and red scarf was wrapped on his neck and he wore a brown stylish, neat and clean jacket. He was wearing fitted pants and a silver chain attached on his belt. And he had a smirk plastered on his lips. Overall, he looked quite different from his normal always-bullied self.

He was currently walking around the streets like any civilian during break, but he had a different purpose. He discreetly observed his surrounding and the people on it as he walked. The way he walked, the way his shoulder stood tall with pride and the way his back didn't staunch, it was different from his dame self, which was good since tripping on air wasn't fun at all and that would be off looking for any available playmates, though sometimes being a tad bit clumsy had its uses. Clumsy equaled innocence and that factor was endearing for a few playmates with their certain fetishes.

He turned another corner towards an alley and that was where he accidentally knocked someone over. His dame self had finally reared its head once again, but it was a good coincidence based on the feeling he got.

A hand was on his arm, preventing him from falling. With an apology automatically ready on his lips, he immediately lifted his chin a bit when another hand held his hand steady. "Ahh…I'm sorry." Apology slip passed his lips, along with a puff of white. The man's hand on his arm let go when he deemed the brunet steady enough, but he felt the man's hand linger a bit longer before completely letting go.

The man looked at him appreciatively, discreetly assessing his worth, but he could feel his eyes on him so the discreetly part wasn't really true.

Because of the cold weather, his cheeks had that pinkish color, enhancing his cuteness. To add more effect on his _image_ , his other hand reached for his scarf as if to lift it towards his chin, but instead, he discreetly lowered it, making his pale milky white neck visible: a bold move which would be interpreted by this man as _please bite me_. The man's gaze lingered on his neck, surely thinking of doing more pleasurable things. _'Ahh. Caught already.'_

He exhaled once again, another puff leaving his plump shivering lips, and he stared at the person before him in a timid manner, eyes lowered to enforce his innocent image, eyelashes fluttering, and there was still growing pink tinging on his cheeks. The man looked at him with a daze in his eyes and by now, the man had stopped his discreet gazes. Instead, he looked at him with certain hunger in his eyes.

"I'm sorry too." The hold on his hand remained. He could feel the warmth of the person's hand on his cold hand. A pause, then he looked up at the person's eyes. He made himself look confused, but his eyes glowed brightly with a hint of mischievousness. The person before him stood still, looking at his eyes, now captivated by the glowing bright orange hue while their hands were still in the same hold. It looked like the man was smitten.

The person smiled at him and a decision had been made. "As an apology, let me take you to dinner." The hand on him tightened its hold, a way of telling him not to refuse his offer. He looked at the person before him and glanced at their connected hands. He looked once again at the person's face, and smiled.

"I would love to." As the brunet smiled and his eyes glowed even brighter, nervousness and confusion were completely replaced by playfulness evident on his smirk.

Finally, it was time to have fun.

 _("T-Teach me."_

 _Silence. Then a loud voice._

" _Why should I teach you, brat!?" The lady before him angrily spat._

" _P-Please...teach me!" he stuttered at first, but he said it in a determined voice. The lady before him continued to glare at him._

" _You damn brat!" The lady was about to whack him on the head, but he still continued staring at her with a determined pair of eyes, causing her to look away. She kicked away the chair next him before stomping her way out._

" _W-Wait..!" He grabbed her arm, but he was strongly shaken off and he fell on his butt. Seconds later, she loudly shut the door with a loud bang._

 _He remained silent as he thought of what to do. It took him a few minutes of contemplating, his gut feeling protesting followed by nervous bubbling from his stomach before he came into a sound decision, or a reckless decision, at that moment. "If she won't teach me...then...I'll learn it by myself.")_

 _("…You…Idiot!" The lady slapped him on the cheek. It stung, but the pain was incomparable to the overall soreness he could feel on every tip of his nerves._

" _I-I'm sorry..." he stammered out shakily, even when he only said it automatically._

" _You know you aren't very sorry." she muttered angrily in annoyance._

" _I-I-I'm really sorry..!" he stuttered, albeit shakily because of the pain. He didn't want her to be angry at him anymore, but she made her displeasure known by tightening the bandage on his arm more than necessary. It made him wince from time to time._

 _There was silence as she helped him before she concluded under her breath, "Not at all.")_

When Christmas break was over, he came back to Namimori and went back on his every day excuse of a life.

He might have changed when he went to Tokyo, but it didn't change the fact that he was still Dame-Tsuna.

Dame-Tsuna would always be Dame-Tsuna, no matter what he did, especially because of what he does.

 **To be continued…**

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 **A/N: Kindly leave a review *inserts smiley***

 **Timeline:** 10 yrs old – when Nana died. Let's conclude that she died near his 10th summer break and on summer break Tsuna ran away to Tokyo, met the lady who looks like his mother then got into bad business. Present time is Christmas break when Tsuna is 13 and Reborn will arrive in June 18-19, according to Metamorcy's post in tumblr. And also Japan's summer break starts on July 20 till the end of August (it was 6 weeks) and it wouldn't be shorter since it is Namimori not somewhere in Hokkaido. Also.. I'm not very sure but in this story Tokyo is one bus away from Namimori but let's say the travel time is long like 5 hours or somewhere around that time maybe lesser time.

 **Reasoning behind this Tsuna:** Tsuna is alone for three years, he refuse any help because all of it is half-hearted (to me). He is guilty because of his Mom's death, he wanted to run away from the pitying glances, the hateful looks and when he did. He found a way to cope and there he met the lady (who will remain nameless and would be referred as **nee-chan** ) and the way he found was through seduction then from there it changed. He wanted punishment and he is being punished (you know what I meant by this) every school break he have. Let's just say he is being paid so we could conclude it is a win-win situation (base on Tsuna's current mental state because he doesn't care, he only wanted punishment, you see.) Anyway, at first it was to prove that he could actually do something and yes he somewhat learned how to seduce but he paid hefty for it. And from then, he changed.

 **Reasoning behind this Iemitsu:** Iemitsu is guilty because his wife was killed because of his involvement in the Mafia. He hated himself and he told his son that the man who killed his wife is someone who wanted revenge, it was the truth but he didn't say that it was because of his involvement in the Mafia. Iemitsu tries to help his son but his son brushes it all off and since he is guilty, let's just say he is letting his guilt eat him away. He didn't contact his family when Nana was still alive but he calls his son since Nana died because his son is living alone. Also Iemitsu is wallowing in guilt so he is letting his son go and do as he please. He doesn't know his son's endeavor despite his people observing his son. Because his son is slippery af when he goes to Tokyo, added that he doesn't want to know about it because he have no right in his son's life so his men were just there, silently observing Tsuna, report to Iemitsu about his son, and protect his son from evident harm while not knowing that Tsuna was doing bad business while in Tokyo. Iemitsu believes that his son isn't up to no-good so the possibility that Tsuna doing illegal things is not in his mind, he see Tsuna as an innocent child which leads to further complication because obviously if he had investigated enough he would know about his son's endeavour.

 **This Nana:** Nana is an angel who sacrificed her life for her son. She loves his son dearly, she doesn't ridicule him even when in a teasing tone which canon!Nana is not. This Nana isn't disappointed in her son and she also loves her husband greatly that it was painful but she still loves him more than the pain she felt.

 **The lady/Nee-chan** (my very own OC, relevant to keep the story going because I need someone for that position) **:** She is Nana look-alike and Tsuna noticed that. But she have sharp eyes, longer hair tied in a bun and a scowl on her face but she is sometimes kind to Tsuna, and sometimes impatient angry lady. Either way, that is her personality. She is only a supporting character, ignore her for all I care.

 **Finally Reborn:** He is a Spartan tutor and had his own way of helping this Tsuna. He would be an important figure in this story.


	2. Chapter 2

**November 12, 2016:** Chapter **betaed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_. *insert smiley here*

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! So please don't sue meee!

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~ **Crimson Spiral** ~

 **Chapter 2**

 _("Dame-Tsuna got the lowest score again!"_

 _Snickers._

" _He always does, doesn't he?"_

 _Laughs._

" _Yes, it's like he is competing for the top place on being dame."_

 _Laughter._

" _That's mean! There is no competition to begin with! Dame-Tsuna will always be the champion of being dame."_

 _More laughter.)_

Tsuna knew that he was no good, friendless, a useless waste of resources, but it didn't mean his father could just decide what to do! Sending a tutor just because his grades were the worst? Hah! Grades were meaningless because he could still find a job despite his failing grades. He could try to be better, but for the life of him, even when he tries he still fails. Besides school wasn't his priority anymore. He had the looks and he wasn't going to waste his precious time studying worthless subjects that didn't have any involvement with his entertainment. Instead, he was going to have beauty for the rest of his life or wallowing in self-pity. Either way it was better than studying for school.

So when he received a telephone call from dear Iemitsu about a home tutor that would be coming tomorrow to start tutoring him, he immediately pressed the end button and pulled the telephone plug. No one could bother him anymore if his telephone wasn't connected and no one – aside from his Nee-chan – knew his phone number. But knowing his father's spies, his father would likely get a hold of his phone number after two days, maybe even less than that, either way he still got his peaceful dame life for a day or two.

Back to his problem, the tutor his father hired, Reborn, was going to live with him! He could already foresee his future. Being mocked by the tutor for being Dame-Tsuna, getting tutored every day would surely suck and the man would find a way of making him feel worse because the tutor would surely rub in that his life was a disappointment, or worse, tell him how he shouldn't exist, which was still the same and he knew it, but for some reason those words hurt more. He shouldn't be hearing it from a stranger.

Going back to his dark room, he slowly packed his clothes and other necessities into his bag. If that tutor was going to arrive tomorrow, he was going to sneak away tonight. _'That tutor will surely arrive to an empty house and never come back.'_ he thought smugly.

Upon his arrival in Tokyo, after his unplanned endeavor, he immediately rented a cheap motel room. Immediately leaving his baggage behind, he ventured outside to find a _stress reliever_.

 _("You went out again." the lady said in a resigned tone._

" _Yup." he said cheerfully with his cheek slightly pink with after-glow._

 _She shook her head, "You are digging your own grave, brat."_

 _He looked at her with confusion then shook his head in disagreement. "I don't think so, Nee-chan."_

 _She studied his slightly limping figure and then glared at him. He didn't know why his Nee-chan was angry at him, again. "You are such a menace. I wonder why I put up with your idiocy." He pursed his plump chapped lips confusedly._

" _Because you love me?" A whack on the head was what he got when those words left his lips._

" _Cheeky brat." she said in an annoyed tone, but he felt warm at the hidden meaning of her action. Then she added in a softer yet still stern voice, "I warned you, brat." He smiled at her brightly._

" _You do love me, Nee-chan." he concluded, his voice not wavering. His face lit up like a bright diamond surrounded by rusty chain. Despite his tone of voice, he couldn't stop the dread slowly yet surely filling his heart.)_

He woke up after the incessant ringing of his alarm clock. Lifting his tired limbs, he blindly reaches for the source of his sudden awareness. Feeling around the table, he finally felt his phone's location and deftly dragged it towards him. Opening his phone's screen, the alarm's screeches automatically faded. He brought the bright screen near his face. He opened his eyes slowly and squinted to shield his swimming vision from the screen's brightness. _12:32 P.M._ It read, mocking him with how early it was.

He closed his phone's screen absentmindedly as he put it near his pillow. He grunted in mild annoyance as he felt the beginning of a headache. Closing his eyes in a vain attempt to stifle his incoming headache, he mumbled something indistinguishable under his breath while he snuggled closer against the pillow.

He was about to fall asleep while confined in the warm blanket and pillow, but his blasted phone started ringing its alarm again, interrupting his beauty sleep and making the slight thumping of his headache turn into a massive blowing migraine. _'Blasted phone!'_ He cursed within the expanse of his mind.

He snapped his eyes open, amber eyes flashing into bright orange before it returned to its previous color. He squinted his eyes as he blurrily stared at his opened phone and immediately turned off his alarm setting. Now partially awake with a migraine, any plan of going back to sleep was thrown out of the imaginary window. He groaned under his breath while slowly stretching his sore body into action. _'Should get medicine…soon.'_ he thought groggily.

He slowly stood up, leaving his phone near his pillow once again as he stretched his arms in front of him making an audible popping sound. After that, he shakily stood up, his knees letting out light tremor-like shivers, not from lack of warmth, but due to the soreness running from his bottom. He limped his way to the connected bathroom. Reaching for the metal doorknob, he opened it and he went inside. He could feel the coldness of the tiles against his bare feet as he padded his way towards the sink.

He splashed his face with the cold water, dispersing any of his sleep-induced tiredness. Taking another breath to completely get rid of any sleepiness, he lifted his chin to look at the mirror. There he saw his wet face, still sleepy and tired eyes, swollen and chapped lips with a small hint of dried blood, though he already knew that part because of the taste of his lips. Bed hair made his gravity-defying brown hair even more spiked … "Wait..." With wide eyes, he stared at the image of his hair on the mirror as a sudden realization hit him. "The heck?!" He cursed loudly, eyes wide as if he saw an alien, which was slightly correct to him. However, he didn't see an alien, he saw himself, his regular dame-self and that was bad, really bad. The sight completely eradicated any sleepiness from his system, horror dawning at what he realized.

"What the hell?" He cursed once again, voice now slightly lower than before, yet still had that panicked quality. He gingerly reached for his brown locks as he stared at his hair in the mirror.

' _How did I miss this?'_ he thought in panic as he stood there, looking at his hair as his panicking mind processed his mistake because of his dame-ness the previous night. _'How did I forgot to dye my hair blonde?!'_

"Dame-Tsuna, you idiot." he mumbled under his breath as he turned away from the mirror, his hand reached for the face towel and he dried his slightly-dripping-with-water face with it while inwardly and outwardly berating himself for making a blunder.

He criticized himself for making a mistake, especially because he was having fun while looking like his dame-self. That was dangerous. _'What if I get kidnapped by those pedos?!'_ He groaned one more time in self-pity and for the migraine he was suffering from as he shrieked once again, his panic returning, "Hieee!" It made him trip on empty air and he hit the floor face first. "I-I-It hurts..!" he stuttered as he helped himself from the floor, hand brushing imaginary dust away from his clothes after he rubbed his face to check if he hurt himself from his fall.

' _This is bad.'_ he thought to himself as he got out of the bathroom, heading towards the table where his bag was resting. Immediately rummaging through his bag for a pack of hair color, he took it out and put it on top of the table, proceeding to find his medicine. Upon seeing it, he immediately took a tablet and popped it on his mouth. A few seconds after that, he took a gulp of water from his uncapped mineral bottle. With medicine for his migraine now digested, hopefully he would feel better and he could think properly to make damage control.

Taking another gulp, he closed the lid of his mineral bottle. He stared at the transparent water inside the bottle as he let his mind wander into nothingness.

' _It doesn't really matter, does it? Blonde or not, I am still Dame-Tsuna.'_ he thought after he contemplated his actions. Minutes had passed as he stared at the water with tired amber with orange tinted eyes. He decided to only move when he felt his grumbling stomach, making him snap on his daze. Immediately letting the mineral bottle go, he reached into his bag for a change of clothes, baggy shorts, another sleeveless light blue shirt with a hoody, the big number 27 printed on its front with white and outlined with orange, and a matching fashionable pair of sneakers.

Deeming himself presentable, and holding necessary things like his wallet, keys, and phone, he took one last glance at the mirror. Immediately, his eyes landed on his bed-hair and already lamenting that he couldn't tame his messy hair once again, plus it was messier than normal too.

He set on going out to find food, preferably a bitter coffee for his _hangover_ and maybe some bread too. He mused once again about his brown locks, but decided that he didn't really care and no one knew that he was Dame-Tsuna so...for once in a while, he won't dye his hair blonde.

 _("Why did you choose to dye your hair blonde? Your brown hair was fine." she asked, staring at his messy hair._

" _Ahh…W-Well…B-B-Blonde looks cool." he answered with a stutter. By the end of his sentence, he was looking away and willing himself to look as small as possible in embarrassment. He still couldn't stop stuttering when he was talking to her. He had just arrived a week ago and the lady dragged him with her, but he still felt embarrassed because he couldn't read her properly. Sometimes she easily got angry, and then other times she was kind, like now. She looked at his dyed hair and then ruffled it, making him let out an involuntary squeak._

" _Either way, you still have fluffy soft hair, brat." she said jokingly as she continued messing with his hair, but it made him feel warm. His mother used to pat him on the head, albeit not as strongly as Nee-chan, but still somewhat the same. It made a fluttery warm feeling spread through his heart, and in that moment, he decided that he would follow her example. She must have been a respectable citizen of the society.)_

Upon getting back to his room after walking around aimlessly for a few hours, his lower body felt sore. It wasn't really a good decision to move around after having fun the night before, but he still planned to go out that day, sore or not. He couldn't just pass the chance to walk around the buzzling streets of Tokyo, especially on busy days like this. Though he held back on finding someone to play with for the time being, he knew his limits and he was already stress-free for the time being, so he should just relax and let time pass by.

Tokyo really was a wonderful place to be in, he mused. Everyone was so busy. There was a lot of people, a lot of things to do, a lot of people he could have fun with and no one knew him. No one looked at him twice - aside from those leering flirtatious looks at his direction – and it felt good. For once, he felt free from any restraint, but his freedom was cut-short because of those annoying flirty looks older men shot at him. They looked at him as if he was a piece of meat, wanting to eat him in all possible ways, which was annoying because today was his rest day and he didn't feel like having fun with any of them. Sure those looks thrown at him made him feel like he could control them, but when he wasn't in his _having-fun_ phase, those looks were plain annoying and unwelcome. He also wondered why people in Tokyo were different from the people in Namimori. Here, he was stared at as a prey to be eaten. In Namimori, he was stared at as weak and worth only enough to be bullied. Obviously, both were still prey, but... _'Never mind that.'_ He cut off his train of thought before he got a self-induced headache from over thinking. Today was his rest day, and he would be damned if he let a minor annoyance from leering older men ruin that.

Back in his room, he laid down on his bed planning to rest. He could still feel his back aching, but it had dulled an hour ago, it would most likely fully heal after a day of rest. The same could be said for the overall pain in his body. Also, there weren't many marks left on him, aside from his chapped lips where it was bitten, a few mild bruises on his arms that looked like it had been done by his bullies, and the slowly ebbing away hand-like print on his hips. The mark on his hips would likely be gone after a day too.

Overall, today was his rest day and tomorrow was another day of rest. In the back of his mind, he just knew Hibari-senpai would bite him to death for skipping classes, so he was getting his chance to rest. Once he got back to Namimori, he would be sporting another set of bruises from Hibari-senpai's tonfas, and another beating later from his vicious bullies, not like he cared much for those trivial things.

He also thought about the tutor. It would have been fun to see the shocked expression of his failed-soon-to-be tutor when he arrived at an empty house. Too bad he missed it, and if it really happened, then that tutor would likely leave and never return. He smiled happily at his thought. It would also teach Iemitsu not to hire anyone without his permission, not like he would agree even if he did ask.

' _Maybe I should go back after a week. It's only Tuesday.'_ He questioned himself in his thoughts then he concluded after a few minutes of thinking over it, _'Then I should go back next Monday like nothing happened.'_

He smiled to himself after that sound decision as he hummed a strange tone, a song his mother used to hum before she tucks him in his sleep.

 _("Tsu-kun wants to know the title of the song Mom hums." he softly asked despite the sleepiness drowning him in._

" _Ara, is that so?" His mother chuckled, "It is twinkle, twinkle little star. Does Tsu-kun want to sing it with Mom?"_

 _He slowly nodded as he peered at his mother, loving the way she continued to shine so bright like a star, "Tsu-kun will sing it with Mom." he said happily and it resulted in his mother patting his cheeks tenderly with a soft chuckle._

" _Repeat after me, Tsu-kun. Twinkle, twinkle little star..." They continued singing into the night until he unknowingly fell asleep.)_

He blurrily opened his eyes when he heard the soft knocking on his door. It seemed he had unknowingly fallen asleep after humming that song. Getting up, he mumbled groggily, but should still be audible for the person outside of his room, "Wait, wait, I'm coming."

When he opened his door he was met with…no one. Looking from left to right then peering across the hallway, he saw no one. Dismissing it as a prank, he remained silent and closed the door. A yawn slipped passed his lips, and he mumbled softly to himself, "I'm so sleepy..." He slowly moved back towards his bed, only to stumble when he tripped on his feet again, eliciting a yelp from his throat. He fell face first.

"Ugh..." He groaned as he helped himself up from his fall, only wincing when he felt his sore neck. He slowly went back to his bed while muttering slowly to himself, "It still hurts…Damn." When he made it on his bed, he laid on it with his face facing the bed and head resting sideways on the pillow. He fell asleep upon contact.

He never noticed the onyx eyes silently observing him.

 **To be continued…**

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 **A/N: Kindly leave a review *insert smiley here*** Constructive critism/review are very welcome flames are not.

 **Explanation:** Tsuna is 13, a teenager and well he might be young for doing 'fun' things but he is a growing boy with hormones and all. Underdevelop or still developing, Tsuna still have hormones even if it is not completely developed. (nvm, I am just spouting nonsense.)


	3. Chapter 3

**November 15, 2016:** This chapter is **betaed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_. *insert smiley here*

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn so.. don't sue mee..!

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 **Chapter 3**

 _(An alarm rang and he could hear his mother footsteps as she made her way to his room, but he still couldn't comprehend why. She knocked on the door, yet he didn't pay it any attention because of his current drowsiness. Then the creaking sound of the door opening came._

" _Wake up, Tsu-kun! You're going to be late." A cheerful voice disrupted his sleep but then he processed the words._

" _Hieee!" he shrieked and with wide eyes, he bolted upright on his bed, and because of his hasty action, he stumbled upon empty air, making him hit his knee cap. He cried out in pain, but he still made his way to the bathroom to change his clothes and fix himself up. Upon opening the door to his room, the sweet aroma of breakfast assaulted his nose, making his stomach growl. He hastily ran down the stairs, only to trip and to stumble downward._

" _Tsu-kun, come eat your breakfast already." His mother said across the kitchen and he immediately run to there after making sure he didn't get any bruise from his fall._

" _I'm going to be late!" He yelled after he grabbed his packed lunch which his mother handed to him._

" _Take care, Tsu-kun!" His mother waved at him cheerfully, lovingly and he tentatively waved back._

" _I will." He paused and then suddenly, felt something was amiss, adding. "You take care too, Mom." he said with a worried frown. He couldn't explain why he said it, but he have a bad feeling about today and he felt that it involves his Mom. Hopefully, his weird feeling should be gone by tomorrow.)_ [1]

A soft sigh escaped his parted lips. Along with it, he cuddled closer against the warm blanket wrapped around him. Despite his current drowsiness, he slowly opened his amber eyes. That was when his awareness slowly came back to him. With blurry sight, he slowly took in his surroundings as he shifted his body in a more comfortable position while feeling his stiff right shoulder complain from sleeping on his side, even though he somewhat recalled not falling asleep in that position. Knowing he was a restless sleeper, he might have moved into an uncomfortable position to accommodate his sore limbs and bottom during his slumber.

A long drawn-out yawn left his lips, his eyes closing shut at the same time. He sighed blissfully after that and curled into himself, blissfully wanting to sleep more while ignoring his stiff broad shoulder. He just wanted to sleep some more, and maybe eat afterwards, but overall he felt like he could sleep for a whole day. He mumbled something incoherent under his breath as he pulled the blanket closer, wanting more of the blissful warmth. Yet an unfamiliar squeaky voice rang around his silent room, interrupting his peaceful morning.

"Get up." He couldn't identify any emotion in the voice, aside from the person's tone, which was as casual as stating the weather. There shouldn't be another voice aside from his. He was alone, after all. Filing the words as nothing, probably words at the back of his mind from a memory with a made-up voice, he continued lying blissfully. However, the voice repeated.

"Get up, Dame-Tsuna." The same squeaky voice drawled on, now with a deadpanned tone. He sluggishly shook his head in disagreement, his awareness slowly coming back to him in a slow prick.

He must be really tired to be hearing voices, and so early in the morning too. Not noticing that the voice got louder, he ignored the imaginary voice and went back to his sleep…only to get interrupted when a heavy metal thingy hit him on the head, making him jerk up.

"Gwahh!" With eyes wide open in panic, pain and sudden alertness, he sat upright on his bed, clutching his head. "W-W-What was that!?" he cried out as he rubbed his head gingerly to ease the pain, only to wince when he felt his nails accidentally brush the sore spot.

"A wake-up call, Dame-Tsuna." a squeaky voice drawled as an answer to his outburst. The imaginary voice's answer made him snap his head to the direction of the voice and his supposed imaginary voice was actually coming from an...infant, who suddenly hopped onto his knees, using it as a footstool and was holding on a green…mallet?

"W-W-Wha..?" He gaped at it in confusion. _'Why is a baby holding on a big mallet?! W-W-Wait! Why is there even an infant here in my room!?'_ he thought in alarm, panic and disbelief as he shut his mouth. His wide eyes looked at the infant on his kneecap, blinking once in apparent disbelief, and then stared at the mallet with apprehension as he tried to calm down.

' _T-This...'_ He gulped rather loudly while he stared at the infant, who was looking at him as if peering through his soul. _'This situation doesn't make any sense!'_

He lamented the fact that he was sporting another bruise and a slowly budding headache from all the absurdity, and so early in the morning too. However, the fact that a baby was holding a green mallet and had apparently hit him with it - and no, he wasn't going to think about that - was physically impossible unless… _'The mallet must be made of plastic!'_ He glance back to the mallet to confirm that it was really made of plastic, but instead, witnessed another absurdly. The green mallet started to transform into…a chameleon?

"Hieeee!?" He let out a startled shriek at what he witnessed, mind blanking for a moment as he immediately backed away from the infant and his antics in alarm, making the said baby hop onto the bed instead.

' _What kind of messed up situation is this!?'_ he moaned to himself in frustration as he experienced another induced headache from the traumatic incident he just witnessed. _'How the heck is it possible for a mallet to turned into a chameleon?!'_ Tsuna was becoming very pale at what he was seeing.

"W-W-Who are you?" he stuttered with wide, fearful and disbelieving eyes as he took another glance at the green chameleon resting on the baby's hand. The infant pulled something from under his black suit… _'A suit…? Why is a baby wearing a suit?!'_ he thought distractedly as he let out another 'hie,' but this time, a bit lower after he confirmed that the infant was really wearing an expensive looking suit. The suit made the baby look smart, and by the look of the suit alone, this infant seemed rich, like filthy rich.[2] _'Wait! This is no time thinking about a suit!'_ Tsuna refocused on the main problem and that was the how, why, and what was a baby doing in his room? Why was he seeing some delusion of a mallet turning into chameleon and why was a baby wearing an expensive suit?

He blinked once, twice, and then forced himself to stop panicking any more than he currently was. _'I must have hit my head when I woke up. I'm seeing things, I must be going mad.'_

"I am the home tutor, Reborn." The infant answered his question as he showed him an envelope. "Now read this letter from your father, Sawada Iemitsu." Tsuna numbly registered that it must have been the thing the baby took from his suit. _'The home tutor, Reborn?'_ His eyes widened.

"But you're an infant!" he outwardly cried, yet he still reached for the envelope, albeit reluctantly. _'Iemitsu must have been lying! He just wanted me to babysit.'_ he concluded. There was no way this baby was that home tutor, Reborn. Or if he was Reborn, there was no way he is a tutor. He slowly opened the envelope, and then a new thought entered his mind. His eyes widened, making his heart beat faster than normal and he licked his lower lips nervously. _'What if...?'_

He nervously looked up at the infant in front of him as he opened his mouth, "Are you my...?" He didn't want to complete the sentence, so he left it hanging. He thought Reborn would answer his incomplete question, but Reborn merely looked at him in amusement – why he was amused is currently lost to him – and dipped his head to point at the letter.

"Read to find it out, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn's answer made him pout impatiently. Reborn could have said yes or no, but the kid chose to be cruel. Deciding that he should get this over with, he read the letter while wishing that this Reborn wasn't family.

As he read the short letter, he expected something unpleasant, like learning that Iemitsu had a new family or he have a love child and this infant – Reborn – was his biological step-brother, but instead, it wasn't at all like he thought. He felt relieved that this Reborn wasn't his step-brother and he wouldn't be babysitting him. The other part of his mind was thinking that Reborn was mean for not telling him earlier, but he could slightly sympathize with Reborn and wasn't that weird.

 _Tsuna,_

 _I have decided to hire Reborn as a home tutor to help your studies and to train you into becoming a great Mafia Boss. Take care, my Tuna-fish!_

 _PS: If you are reading this, that means you cut off the telephone line again, so I wasn't able to explain about Mafia or Vongola. Anyway, just ask Reborn._

 _Dad_

He stared at the letter and his relief was short lived because another bomb was dropped on him, via letter.

"Mafia?! Wait, what does he mean by me being a Mafia Boss?!" he cried out in shock as he turned to Reborn in the instant he processed the words written on the letter with wide fearful eyes. However, something immediately clicked in his mind despite his all-over-the-counter emotions.

Those people – who was following, observing him - weren't spies that Iemitsu hired. They were in the Mafia. But if his father was in the Mafia, then that meant his mother…died because of it?

His emotion immediately soured when he realized that. It was because of Iemitsu's involvement in the Mafia that his mother passed away and for his father not to tell him that… _'Why?'_ He also realized that Iemitsu was lying to his mother all this time. He kept telling her about his work in a construction company and his mother died without even knowing the truth. _'Mom...'_

He took another look at the letter again, his eyes shining with emotion. To know that Nana was being lied to until death, his loving mother who always smiled and was so obliviously happy during the very rare times Iemitsu was home, his mother who died because someone hated his father...He shook off his train of thought. Being bitter about it all wouldn't help.

He took another look at the infant still in front of him, who remained silent, letting him sort out his emotions – or it was just him justifying something - and merely observed him. Now that he thought about it, this situation felt like a joke. His father hired a tutor, a baby tutor, to help and train him? 'What can a baby teach me?' he mused.

"This must be some kind of joke." he said mirthlessly, yet a hint of pain could be heard in his tone while his lips were curled into a smile. Mafia? And a baby going to tutor him? Don't make him laugh.

"This is no joke. I am here to train you into becoming a Mafia Boss." The infant responded. Tsuna chuckled softly.

"What could a baby teach me?" His lips pulled into an amused smirk. He must be really crazy. He was panicking like a headless banshee appeared earlier, but now he just found everything funny.

The infant raised his arm and a gun appeared in his hand – no, he didn't see the chameleon transforming into a gun, he did not. He didn't! His eyes widened momentarily as he stared at the gun nervously. It looked like a real gun, but that was impossible. There was no way a baby could even have a gun! The situation took quite deadly turn, even more so when the baby flashed him a sweet, angelic smile that screamed dangerous. He gulped at the image this baby is making, and tried to back away when the single answer left the infant's lips.

"Everything." He could hear the implication quite loud and clear. _I will teach you everything you need to become a Mafia Boss._ All he could think amidst the feeling of dread – and secretly pain - crawling at his body was: _'What kind of trouble did you get me into, Iemitsu?'_

"You're crazy." He voiced after a heartbeat and, next thing he knew, Reborn's leather boots hit the side of his head, sending him sprawling and kissing the floor, leaving him in a twitching and groaning mess.

"Why did you kick me!?" he protested in a loud voice as he moaned pathetically at the pain he was suffering from a crazy baby.

"Felt like it." At the back of his mind, Tsuna noticed that Reborn didn't deny his accusation, but he forgot about it altogether because of the pain.

"What kind of reason is that?!" Tsuna cried out his complaint as he got off the floor. He sat there while eyeing the baby standing on his bed incredulously. He slightly noticed that the gun was nowhere to be found and the chameleon was sitting at the edge of the baby's fedora. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"I'm a hitman." was the smug answer he received. Tsuna smack his face with his palm because of it. He inwardly cried. He didn't know what to think about all the absurd things Reborn was doing and there was no way Reborn was a baby hitman – this wasn't a cartoon where a baby had super powers to kill off enemies and conquer the world – but Reborn just implied something along the lines of him dying. He felt like sobbing in a corner. Reborn was violent and would hurt him like there was no tomorrow. Reborn had hit him twice already and it was only morning too!

He hadn't eaten any breakfast yet and here he was dealing with a crazy Mafia baby. He could already feel his stress skyrocketing. Tokyo was supposed to be stress free because no one would bother him. No one knew him. No one knew he was here too...

"Just how the heck did this baby find me?" he mumbled under his breath. It was a whisper. Even he could barely hear it himself.

"Information gathering is one of the basic skills in the Mafia." Reborn answered. The brunet stared at this baby with shock, mouth agape, because there was no way this baby could have heard him. The baby looked at him with that annoying smug smile again.

"Now, Dame-Tsuna, care to tell me why you're in Tokyo?" the baby asked him conversationally.

"It's none of your business." he answered with a huff, crossing his arms on his chest and tilting his head sideways as if dismissing the baby's words, but his gaze was still on the baby.

"I am your home tutor. I must know everything." Reborn answered as he hopped to land between Tsuna's crossed legs. Reborn looked up at him and Tsuna stared at Reborn's beady onyx eyes. "Or is there something you're trying to hide, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn asked. The way Reborn stared at him was unnerving, making him fidget on his position.

The silence stretched between them. It was unnerving. It was suffocating him. And during it all, Reborn never left his gaze off him and he did the same. Though, Tsuna knew he was looking uncomfortable, Reborn still looked the same impeccable self, never letting any emotion on his eyes or facial expression show, remaining still like a stone statue and it unnerved the brunet.

' _He isn't normal.'_ he thought, and that conclusion made his gut feeling hum. He unconsciously blinked his eyes after that thought, but he remained tense.

"It's none of your business." he repeated with a hint of annoyance and voice was raised higher with his temper. It was really none of Reborn's business.

Reborn regarded him in contemplative silence. The way he stared seemed…adult-like. But it was worse than those looks he received all his life. Reborn looked at him, really looked at him, and it was unnerving. It was suffocating. He could see the calculations flash on that gaze and he wondered why he wasn't freaking out. Maybe the adrenaline from before was gone and now he was accepting all the weirdness?

Reborn then reached towards him. His shoulder tensed even more because the _Mafia_ baby was going to touch him, but Reborn was an infant, it should be fine. _'He's an infant, there's nothing to worry about.'_ he repeated in his mind as a false assurance. During his dilemma, he didn't notice that Reborn saw his anxiety.

Reborn got a hold of his arm during his inner distress. Then the Mafia baby gripped his arm hard, twisting it in an uncomfortable angle. His previous thoughts were gone and he could only complain aloud.

"Ow, ow, ow! Let go! Let go!" he cried out in pain, distressed as he tried to squirm from Reborn's deadly child-size grip. _'How is it possible that he has an inhuman strength? Is he a mutant?!'_ he thought in panic as he inwardly cried from the bruise he was receiving.

"Lesson One, don't raise your voice at me." Reborn drawled on. He sounded flippant, as if he wasn't hurting someone because of his impossible strength.

"What kind of lesson is that?!" he yelled out in answer and the response he received was the tightening of Reborn's grip. It made him inwardly cry out imaginary river of tears.

"Ow, ow, ow! I will! I will!" he hurriedly said in a high-pitched voice as an acceptance to Reborn's lesson number one – more like torture number one.

Reborn let go after those words left his lips and he immediately cradled his bruised arm, massaging it soothingly to ease the pain.

 _Why the heck was this happening to him?_ He moaned miserably in his position like a kicked puppy.

"Let's go, Dame-Tsuna. It's time for breakfast."

"I haven't changed my clothes yet." he said as he peered at Reborn. The Mafia baby took in his attire.

"I'll give you two minutes."

"Ehh?!" With that answer, he looked at Reborn with wide shocked eyes, "Why should I obey you?"

"I'm your home tutor." Reborn stated as if the answer was as simple as that. The Mafia baby promptly kicked him in the face, sending him flying and soaring towards the bathroom door, making him let out a startled shriek.

"What was that for?!"

Instead of an answer, he heard a click. He slowly and fearfully stood up. From Reborn's position, he could see that the Mafia baby was pointing the same gun from earlier in his direction, making him scramble on his feet. "Move already, Dame-Tsuna."

He let out a shriek and inwardly thought on why he was panicking again. Before he could dwell on it, a gun shot rang out in the room and he heard a cracking sound next to him. He slowly looked to his right and there he saw a gunshot hole on the wall. It was an inch away from his right cheek. With wide fearful eyes, he slowly and carefully looked back at Reborn's position. "What if you accidently hit me?"

"I won't." was the smug answer he received from the crazy baby. Tsuna fearfully gulped down. "Now move already or I'll shoot you again, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn smiled, sending shivers down the brunet's spine. He immediately scrambled to his feet and hid inside the bathroom after letting out a girlish scream.

' _I don't wanna die!'_ he thought in growing panic. He just wished the bathroom door could forever protect him from the crazy baby, Reborn.

Of course, if what he observes of Reborn's personality then he is most likely doomed to failure.

 **To be continued…**

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 **A/N: Kindly leave a review. And thanks for all the reviews/favourite/follows for this story.**

[1] The infamous hyper intuition is never wrong. Flashback is set on the day Nana died.

[2] Of course Tsuna would know how about those.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows!**

 **Warning:** Trigger warning for child sexual abuse. Implied in flashback and narrative format. I wouldn't add anymore warning on future chapters because all of it will be the same implied flashback or narrative format. And first chapter already contains all of the warnings needed for this story.

 **November 18, 2016:** This chapter was **betaed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! So no suing..!

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 **Chapter 4**

He spared a sidelong glance at the evil baby sitting across the table. They were in a restaurant ten minutes away from the motel.

He actually wanted to face palm because the crazy baby snatched one of his toasted bread again. But when he loudly protested, Reborn just answered that early birds get to eat first, or something along those lines, which didn't make sense because he was the one paying for their meal. Anyway, since he didn't want to get another headache from Reborn's antics, he let the baby do as he pleased. It wasn't like he had much of an appetite.

Letting his mind wander, he thoroughly thought about all the information he had gathered since this morning as he idly looked around the restaurant, or more specifically, the people going in and out of the establishment.

First of all, his father, Iemitsu, was involved with the Mafia. Based on the baby's explanation this morning after he shot his bathroom door, leaving the doorknob unhinged, he just knew that the owner of that motel would ask for compensation, Iemitsu was a high ranking individual in the Mafia world, so that confirms that his father's enemies were the reason for his Mother's…death. That connection didn't sit well with him because Mafia was the kind of world he definitely didn't want to be a part of. It was the bane of his miseries. Those people in the Mafia were… _are_ all cold blooded and lying bastards. Iemitsu was a prime sample of that.

His mother _is_ a wonderful person. His mother was always smiling at him, petting his fluffy hair, comforting him when he asked where his father was and during those times, he felt his mother hugging him tighter. Now that he thought about it, his mother might or might not have known about the Mafia, but she must have suspected something, yet she still accepted that Iemitsu would prioritize his work over his family. It was sad. He always wanted to make his Mother smile, to make her happy, and the reason she was hurting was because of Iemitsu, who was rarely home. He disliked his father for hurting his mother when he realizes that. Tsuna hated his father when he told Iemitsu that he was the reason his mother died. At the back of his mind, there was guilt. Now that he finally realized that a Mafioso must have killed his mother, it struck him that the Mafia must be a dark world who loved messing with people's lives. His mother died because of it…That was why he wanted no part in that world. That world stole his mother from him and his life was a mess because of it – he didn't acknowledge that he had a part in messing his own life.

He was going to be a Mafia Boss? The Vongola's Tenth Boss and he…He vehemently shook his head to get rid of such thought that sent a pang of something on his heart.

He wasn't going to be a Mafiaso. Never. He would never ever become a Mafia Boss – the worst kind of all, because a Boss was akin to being someone like Iemitsu, someone with power, a conniving lying bastard who prioritizes work over family – because anything related to the Mafia was the reason he didn't have a mother. He wouldn't become someone like the one who stole his mother's life.

Reborn, the self-proclaimed World Greatest Hitman would be helping him in his studies, or more like bully him into studying. He didn't even want to think about Reborn training him on being a Mafia Boss because he was not going to be one. He would keep arguing about that. Of course, it wasn't helping that Reborn was sprouting something along the line of it being his destiny or something along those cliché lines he heard on those annoying television series. He was not going to be a Mafia Boss, period, end of discussion. However, Reborn, the crazy baby Mafioso, never listened to him before and he just knew it was going to be a problem for him.

Over all, everything was all about the Mafia and it was a pain in the ass. Reborn was a harbinger of chaos too.

He let out a sigh from all his musing as he slumped on his seat. He should definitely run away from the baby, the bringer of his miseries – despite feeling a bit grateful that Reborn told him about the Mafia because Iemitsu was a coward - and maybe do something…if only he could run away from him, that is.

Reborn had already thwarted his plans twice! How the hell did Reborn keep popping from the most unlikely places, like the small window at the back of the public restroom, or magically appearing from a secret passage inside the wall on some alleyway he was running into. It was definitely lost to him. Reborn was definitely a harbinger of chaos who planned on ruining his life. And if all Mafioso was like him, he would likely go insane.

Tsuna inwardly cried. He wouldn't be getting peace from now on. He couldn't even get away from that baby Mafioso. He also idly wondered if all mafia babies were like him…He shuddered from his horrible thoughts. _'I don't want to deal with any of this!'_

He decided that he should go back to his room and sleep, but the infant Reborn had other plans for him.

"We're going back to Namimori, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn declared. The instant those words left the raven's lips, he sat up straight on his chair, knocking it back harshly, startling everyone in the restaurant, but he didn't pay it any attention. His gaze was glued on the baby in front of him. Reborn was still drinking without any care in this world, as if his attention was something to be dismissed. It made him slightly irritated because he was getting tired of always being dismissed.

"I am not going back there." he said after he managed to compose himself while reigning down his irritation.

Reborn didn't answer him, but he did look up at the brunet with those same calculating eyes. It unnerved Tsuna. Earlier, it was suffocating him, now that gaze was judging him. It felt like Reborn was looking at him, gauging his inner thoughts. Reborn looked at him and all Tsuna could think about was the _Mafia_ baby taking all the answers he could get from his eyes alone. Thus he looked away with a forced huff, turning on his pelvis as he arranged the chair to its previous position and sat down on it. Through it all, he didn't say a word, letting the silence descend on them, yet he could still feel the lingering gaze on him and it made him fidget. It felt like Reborn was learning all of his secrets just by looking at him and it scared him.

Tsuna nervously looked around the restaurant, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feelings. He saw a few customers shooting their table with confusion and idle curiosity, which made him sigh once again. It was embarrassing that they saw him shooting off from his chair while talking to a baby. He ducked his head in embarrassment.

After a few more minutes, he decided that he should just go back to his room. Paying the waitress, he slowly went back to his merry way.

He idly took his time in walking, sometimes kicking cans he passes by, sometimes looking around for few establishments like the mini groceries across the street or glancing at the car passing by then to the people walking. He gradually relaxed at the normal sceneries and the normal booming voice of Tokyo.

Only for it to be disrupted when he accidentally bumped into someone. It was a man wearing a work office suit with dark brown hair.

Good thing he managed not to fall on his butt, hard.

He yelped under his breath at the suddenness of his fall and he lifted his head to look up at who bumped into him. His eyes momentarily widened at the familiarity of that person's face and body build. And he sent a small prayer that this man would take his startled appearance as an effect of his fall instead of familiarity.

A helping hand reached down for him, and a familiar deep voice rang out. "Let me help you."

With eyes still wide open, the helping hand in front of him grasped his arm and pulled him up. His eyes dimmed with emotion and he slightly flinched at the touch. Hopefully, the man didn't notice his body's weird reaction.

When the man deemed him steady, the man unclasped his hand on his arm and let go before patting his arm in feather-light touches. That disgusting motion made him sick.

"Are you okay, kid?" the man asked with a worried face. Tsuna could feel the lingering look the man gave him. It made his heart beat faster, and not in a good way. He immediately nodded his head.

"Y-Yes." he said it with a sweet nervous smile, but to him, it looked forced. He wasn't meeting the man's gaze as well, enforcing his shy image.

The man looked at him appreciatively, but to Tsuna it looked like the man was assessing him. He just knew it would end up with lots of screaming and begging on his part.

He batted his eyelashes in a captivating way that made him look more innocent, the way that made everyone fall into his trap. But today was not a good day. Tsuna wasn't in the mood for this man. He was the sole person in his list of must get away from. However, he wouldn't show his dislike because he had brown hair right now. He wasn't blond.

"Thanks for the help, Ojii-san."[1] Tsuna said without stuttering, but his voice was soft like a whisper. He tilted his head slightly downward in a timid way, his hand fidgeting at his shirt while looking at the man with stars gleaming in his eyes. His lips pursed downward into a small cute frown. The teenager parted his lips in a deliberate slow motion and said in a sweet innocent voice. "But I got to go now, Ojii-san." He peered at him with a slightly teary-eyed look, but the way his eyes twinkled still remained.

The man paused before saying something. "Ah, yes. Take care, kid." During that pause, he immediately identified that the man looks disappointed for missing a chance, but it was gone the next moment.

"You take care, too." Tsuna replied with a soft smile gracing his features. "Maybe next time." He immediately ran away among the crowd, losing the man's sight on his back.

 _(He was just learning how to seduce older men. He thought that older men were easier to fool, so how did it end up with him being man-handled? He didn't look like Dame-Tsuna at all. He have blond hair now, so why did this man hurt him like back in Namimori? He didn't understand. Why was it still the same here in Tokyo?_

 _But he saw the difference later that night. In that same dark narrow alley, a tall, tanned, and drunk man with slicked dark brown hair and colored sharp eyes pinned him to the wall, telling him how beautiful, lovely, and mesmerizing he looked. It felt wrong, horrible even yet…the man repeatedly done it with him twice, thrice on that same night. He actually forgot how he was able to go back to his Nee-chan's place the next day.)_

He met that man when he was 10. He was only learning how to seduce older men during that time. At first he wanted to learn, not because of money, but for the thrill of fooling around with other people. When he was learning how to seduce someone, every time he managed to successfully seduce, he always ran away after that because they would have that creepy look on their face. It made him uncomfortable, but he didn't stop. He didn't know why he didn't, even when his gut was telling him not to do it anymore. Then he met that man with dark brown slicked hair, and he was confident he would be able to run if that man would give him one of those same creepy leering looks.

But the man didn't look at him like that. He stared at him in wonder, as if he was a mesmerizing thing. Honestly, he didn't know those looks were more dangerous than the leering he received. He didn't even think that his uncomfortable gut feeling was a sign that the man was dangerous. And he only realized it when the man manhandled him like a precious puppet while controlling him on a tight leash.

It was a one night thing and, during that night, he learned that seducing men will always come to _that_.

He begged, pleaded not to be hurt, but the man kept talking about creepy, disturbing things he wanted to forget. When it was finished the first time, he thought he was free. How wrong he was. He wasn't free at all. It was merely a break for more to come. The man practically dragged him somewhere and taught him a lot of perverted things, whispering vile words like how this was their dirty little secret and the same could be said about the third time. That was when he passed out. He didn't even know how he was able to keep up with the man. Maybe it was the result of his stubborn nature. He woke up the next day with a large sum of money on the desk and a note of _until next time,_ which he ripped apart into tiny bits upon landing his gaze on that wrenched thing.

But that night was a wake-up call. Seducing men always ended up with sex, and now that he was thirteen, he knew from experience that seducing men was a form of control. Since that night, seducing men became a thrilling game of prey and predator with money as an extra incentive. During those three agonizing years, he didn't even notice that it wasn't what he really wanted and his heart was breaking for doing those things. He didn't even think that his mother would definitely be against it as he was caught up in all his guilt.

He closed his eyes when the flashback of his first time resurfaced in his mind. The bathroom door was opened and he was kneeling on the tiles miserably, his hand clutching his knees, digging his fingernails against his skin in a way to cope. He took one shuddering breath and exhaled shakily. When he deemed himself calm, he slowly got up and stared at the mirror, looking at his image. His face was pale. _'I guess the stress is finally getting to me.'_

Such an honest thought laced with meanings he still hadn't realized. He didn't even comprehend that it wasn't stress about the Mafia.

He also didn't notice that Reborn was observing him in a contemplative silence, his black onyx eyes searching for information, drilling the image of Tsuna's pitiable self at the back of his mind. A silent promise was clear in his beady eyes, ' _I will unveil all your secrets, Tsunayoshi Sawada_.'

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **A/N: Please leave a review~ *insert begging puppy look here***

[1] Ojii-san, it means Mister in this case because that guy is a stranger. Ojii-san could also mean uncle when you are talking with a family member. I am not really sure of my vocabulary since I'm not good in Japanese.


	5. Chapter 5

**December 11, 2016:** Betaed by _**Pure Red Crane**_.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! So don't sue me…

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

He was just drying his face with the towel when he was hit by mallet, a mallet he didn't notice because his eyes were closed. And it hurts to be hit by that thing!

"Why did you hit me?!" he shouted, a scowl on his face after turning his head and finding the crazy baby Reborn standing near the sink, sitting cross-legged on the floor and suffering another painful bruise. _'Getting hit by a baby Mafioso is damn weird!'_

Reborn merely looked at him in boredom while the mallet turned back, or was it turned, into a green chameleon. Tsuna sighed in resignation at the sight. There was no denying that the chameleon perched on Reborn's fedora was a shape-shifting little monster, which should be physically impossible, but he was seeing it with his own eyes. Maybe he should just ignore how it was possible. It would surely lessen his headache. Wait, back on the matter at hand - he should really stop getting distracted so easily since it usually ended worse for him. Reborn didn't deign to answer his demand. A bullet passed him by and hit somewhere behind him, maybe the wall, making him shriek with fear.

"Hie! What was that for?!" He stared the gun the baby was now holding with apprehension because damn, this baby was so crazy. Who would shoot him without any warning whatsoever? There was silence after his outburst, then another gunshot. "Hiee! Are you insane?!" And the response was the same answer of silence, plus a happy smile on Reborn's face.

 _Fuck_ , he knew he didn't do anything wrong, so why was this baby so violent all of the sudden?! Or was he a messed-up baby with a personality like one of those sadistic villains on those television series with cops? Wait! Maybe Reborn was one of those trigger-happy sadistic psychopaths...He shuddered, fear evident on his face as he grew pale with every passing second, which felt like an eternity of suffering. Reborn was a sadist! _'Somebody, please stop him!'_ he inwardly cried at the trauma he was suffering from and he moaned in misery, "Why is this happening to me?"

He remained in his miserable pathetic whimpering self even when Reborn didn't add any more action. Then the infant suddenly hopped in front of him with his gun lowered, _thank you for small mercy_. Of course, the lowered gun was then pointed at his face, making his eyes widen even more, like they wanted to leap from its socket while he shook his head in vain attempt of saying _please don't shoot me!_ The gun remained pointed at him and it didn't even waver for any second while the brunet's gaze was darted to every direction, searching for any escape route. He was snapped from his planning when Reborn finally said something,

"We're going back to Namimori, Dame-Tsuna." His voice held that dangerous quality, daring him to oppose so something painful would happen to him. And he couldn't help but believe that Reborn meant it, and that thought was scary because Reborn was only an infant! But he wouldn't surrender.

"I don't want to! You can't make me!" he shouted with all the courage he could muster while his eyes flashed into an orange hue without him realizing it. Reborn paused, and the brunet immediately latched onto that once in a lifetime chance to run far, _far_ away from the danger in all his reckless glory. Like hell he would let go of any chance to run away from dangerous Mafia babies.

However, it was a mistake because in that moment, the gun changed back into a chameleon and into a stun gun.

Before he knew what hit him, he was knocked unconscious with a zap. He only managed to get a glimpse of Reborn looking at him with a satisfied glint in his eyes and hint of sadistic amusement before he passed out. His last agonizing thought was, _'Just why the hell is this happening to me...?'_

When he woke up, he met the sight of a very familiar ceiling, blinking owlishly, his mind still blank at the moment. The onslaught of his last memory hit him, making him jerked from the bed. He soon realized that he was back in his room in Namimori.

' _Who carried me back to Namimori?!'_ he thought in panic. Reborn couldn't possibly be the one who dragged him back while he was unconscious. _'Wait...What did Reborn use to knock me out?'_ he idly wondered. The last scene he remembered was a zapping sound and Reborn's dangerous expressions. He shuddered when he remembered that sadistic amusement flashing in the baby's eyes. He also didn't want to know just what hit him. He would live in ignorance for the time being, and forget about Reborn altogether.

Anyway, he didn't want to be back in Namimori...yet. And to think that his opinion was dismissed and he was forced back here grated on his nerves.

He looked around his room to take things off his mind, immediately noticing that it was already noon based on the grumbling of his stomach. He decided to get up and check his kitchen. He wanted to get back to Tokyo, but...he guessed that he would go when summer break officially started – he also didn't want any chance of seeing _that man_ again. However, it didn't mean he would forgive that crazy baby Reborn for dragging him back. He still felt a bit stiff and sore when he got up, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. It was light compared to normal but it annoyed him that it was all Reborn's fault.

Upon arriving at the kitchen, he did the first thing he should do. He opened the fridge and checked all the food that should be thrown to the bin and salvage ingredients that were still usable. He was almost done with his chore when a squeaky voice greeted him.

"Ciaossu." It snapped him into attention, making him jerk his head towards the direction of the voice. Reborn was standing atop of the fridge.

"R-Reborn!" he said in a startled tone, surprised by Reborn suddenly appearing on top of the fridge. He didn't even want to know where Reborn came from and he was silently wishing that Reborn wouldn't even appear anymore, like _never,_ at all. So much for wishing. When the baby Mafioso was peering down at him, the brunet could only sag in annoyance.

"How did I get back here?" he asked the infant, still confused about that.

"Who knows?" Reborn cheerfully dismissed Tsuna's question before shrugging his shoulders. Then Reborn hopped onto the brunet's left shoulder, "Finish your chore faster, Dame-Tsuna."

Before Tsuna could turn to face Reborn and give him a piece of his mind, Reborn pinched his left ear, hard, making his shoulder tense and a hiss pass his lips. "Ow! What was that for, Reborn?!"

"Punishment for being slow."

' _What the fuck is wrong with him?!'_

"You're just making excuses to hurt me." he said with a miffed tone instead of yelling at the baby. The silence he received and the smug aura he could feel emitting from his shoulder was proof, making him overall annoyed, _'Stupid Mafia baby.'_

Tsuna sighed in annoyance and decided that he should definitely finish his current task so he could prepare food. Dealing with this crazy baby Mafioso made him hungry. He ignored the presence on his shoulder while hoping that when he finally got to eat, his mood would be better and maybe he could think better, or at least stop getting surprised at any supernatural events regarding Reborn.

 _(His mother loved cooking, and Tsuna wanted to help her in any possible way he can. At the age of nine, he already received his title of Dame-Tsuna, but it didn't completely hurt him because his mother was here with him, smiling at him with so much love. They could dislike him all they wanted. As long as his mother didn't hate him, he would be fine. She also didn't look at him with disappointed eyes like those teachers at school gave him, instead looking at him with encouragement. It made him try harder. Every time he saw his mother cook any kind of dish, he always saw that she glowed. He loved to see his Mother smile the best. He noticed that since his mother loved cooking. Maybe he should learn from her. Tsuna wanted to cook for his mother, to make her proud that he could cook her favourite dish. It would surely make her happy and it would make him happy to see that._

" _Mother?" he called out nervously while fiddling with the hem of his shirt._

" _What is it, Tsu-kun?" his Mother asked with a smile on her face. Pulling all the courage he could get, he took a deep breath and asked with an embarrassed blush on his face._

" _W-Would you teach me how to c-cook?" He peered up at his mother with shy expectancy. Then his lips unconsciously curled upward into an ecstatic smile when he saw the way his mother's eyes glowed as if he had asked the most wonderful thing in the world._

" _Of course, Tsu-kun." His mother looked like an angel in that moment. He could feel his heart bursting with happiness for making his mother smile like a bright sun.)_

His mother taught him how to cook. Sometimes he thought when he cooked at his home, making him sad, or bitter or even happy because he could remember that the kitchen was… _is_ his mother's domain. This place was her haven and he shared a lot of happy memories within the walls of the same kitchen: the frustration when he made mistakes, when he helped his mother in the kitchen, when he got teary-eyed every time he messed up cooking a dish or even getting the ingredients ruined due to his clumsiness, and when he jumped with joy once he finally succeeded in cooking a decent meal without hurting himself, knocking tools, tripping on empty air or messing with the cooking procedures.

The kitchen was filled with memories of his loving mother. The place was filled with so many precious memories. Sometimes it overwhelmed him with bitterness because his Mother was gone and would never come back, angry that his mother was now absent in his life. He even smiles to himself like some kind of lunatic when he vividly remembered when his Mother was here, or he would be hysteric, crying, sobbing and wailing because it was painful, which usually happened in his early years. Now though, it gave him a sad nostalgic feeling.

"Dame-Tsuna, stop spacing already or you'll burn what you're cooking." Reborn called him out before pulling down on the brunet's hair, making him wince in pain.

It took him a few seconds to register those words and blinked of confusion before he responded. If Reborn noticed how true his statement, he didn't flaunt it.

"I'm not spacing!" he denied loudly then complained, "And why are you still sitting on my shoulder?! I am not your chair!"

Reborn disregarded his complaint and merely responded in an impatient tone, "Finish cooking in one minute."

The 'or else' laid thick and clear in the air, but he ignored it by protesting in an irritated tone, "That's not enough time!"

Then Reborn pulled his ear again in a painful bruising grip and demanded – more like threatened - "Finish it." He immediately heard the 'or die' loud and clear, making him mumble something along the lines of _crazy Mafia baby,_ resulting in another painful tug on his ear.

"Ow, ow! That hurts!" he yelped in pain. Why was he getting abused by a baby?!

* * *

Tsuna had just finished homework, though he answered the questions with Reborn telling and hitting him with a green cane whenever his answers were wrong, which was on every question. He wouldn't have even done his homework – or at all if he could since the result would still be the same - if Reborn hadn't bound him to the chair, rendering him helpless and forced to answer or he would be forever strapped. But...why was Reborn smart?!

' _Why is this happening to me again?'_ He cried miserably after getting hit after answering a wrong answer again. Since his hands and legs were tied behind the chair, he couldn't bang his head on the desk even if he wanted to. "I just want my normal life back..." He mumbled pathetically as he tried to twist his arm to get free, but to no avail. "Studying is useless and...I don't need it." he mumbled to himself with a frustrated voice.

"What do you want to do with your life, Tsuna?" Reborn said conversely, airily as if the topic was a general gossip he was used to hearing. He remained silent at that question, his head hanging downward and a frown placed on his face. He definitely looked like his normal dame-self.

"Your average score is 23.5. You are barely passing." Reborn drawled on. Tsuna lifted his chin and peered to look at Reborn, who was facing him and standing among the pile of his scattered homework, holding familiar test papers with bold red glaring marks of 25, 20, and 24. His eyes widened at the sight of his failing scores, and he felt embarrassment at someone flaunting all his failed test scores in front of his face. He wanted a hole to swallow him up, to bury and forget the current humiliation he was feeling. He opened his mouth to protest, to deny his accusation because his grades were always like that, yet he was still passing. Before he could utter a single denial, Reborn continued talking as if he didn't care if the brunet responded or not. "If this continues, you would need to attend summer remedial class."

"No." he said lowly. It was barely a whisper, but Reborn heard it, yet he didn't outwardly show he did.

Tsuna wouldn't attend summer remedial class. Even if he was failing, by some miracle – or in which his classmates taunted and told him that he must have bribed their teachers - he still managed to score enough points to get him off any remedial classes. He even resorted to begging his teachers if it wasn't enough. Though he admitted he tries to look like a kicked puppy every time he begged, they would begrudgingly pass him. However, he wouldn't attend summer remedial class, summer was summer and it must be used to have fun with all those dazzling jazz, not to be holed in some school building and the sweltering summer heat. He refused such possibility.

"No." he repeated, this time louder and with conviction. He didn't notice his eyes glow that same orange hue. It immediately diminished after its sudden appearance. Reborn raised his eyebrows inquisitively at his word, as if asking him to elaborate on the subject matter, but Reborn must have known what he meant by that, so he didn't clarify. His reasoning was glaringly obvious. It didn't need to be spoken aloud.

"Why is that, Tsuna?" Reborn said questioningly, imploringly. There was a genuine curiosity behind those uttered words. Tsuna wanted to answer that question, to explain, because there was no harm in telling a baby why he didn't want to attend summer remedial classes or any remedial classes at all, or how he could skip by with bribing his teachers with his puppy-kicked look, or how easy it was for teachers to let him off the hook because of his cute innocent appearance. Yet he didn't...

 _("My true line of profession is a hitman. I'm the World Greatest Hitman.")_

...Because he suddenly remembered those words Reborn said to him. And now looking at him, with that questioning and harmless look on the baby angelic face, Tsuna could see that maybe Reborn was, in fact, not kidding and his gut merely hummed with satisfaction and few slight uncomfortable feelings. This was plain weird and suspicious. It had been a long time since his gut feelings did that, so it brought to question why it reacted to Reborn like that. Was it because he was a harmless child – he conveniently forget that the same harmless child had shot him many times already, always inflicting physical pain on him – or maybe he was secretly a masochist?

"You wouldn't understand." he answered with a happy bounce in his voice. It was oddly playful. He paused after that, and then added as an afterthought, "And I don't want to talk about my life with a baby." There wasn't a hint of humour to his words, but he found it somewhat funny. Tsuna softly chuckled.

Reborn looked at him shrewdly and Tsuna burst out laughing. Nothing was funny, yet he just suddenly laughed. He wondered why he found it all funny, but at the moment, the brunet didn't care. It had been a long time since he last laughed like this; a hysterical laugh bordering into a sob-like sound. He immediately stopped laughing when he heard what sounded like sobbing and then breathed in air to calm his nerves.

He let his head hang limply, his bangs covering his eyes after his little episode. "I am really pathetic."

"Yes, you are." Reborn said in agreement, and by those sudden words, Tsuna lifted his head to look at him. He could see the sincerity behind those words, and something more. "But as your home tutor, I will eradicate any inadequacy and turn you into a respectable and astounding Mafia Boss befitting of the Vongola Family."

...Why was there suddenly a warmth blossoming in his heart? He didn't want to be a Mafia Boss, like never at all! So...why did he feel happy because of those words?

He gulped down. At that moment, he could see the conviction on those words uttered for him. He stared at Reborn, who was still smiling that devilish smile and looking at him in the eye. Tsuna could feel his eyes drilling holes into him, burying words through eyes alone and seeing his soul. It was overwhelming. The unreasonable happiness and the growing uncomfortable feeling of Reborn's gaze was too much.

"I don't want to be a Mafia Boss!" he yelled suddenly to disperse every other emotion, letting his irritation and anger leak from his voice. He didn't want to be a Mafia Boss. And damn it, _he is not going to be a Mafia Boss!_

"I don't tolerate failure, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said after hitting him on the head with his green chameleon-turned-mallet, resulting in another set of bruise.

Reborn hit him. It was painful. He was annoyed because shouldn't the happy feeling disappear by now?

...He wasn't a masochist, was he?!

 **To be continued…**

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 **A/N: Kindly leave a review** *inserts smiley here*


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thanks for all the new reviews, favorites and follows~**

 **Explanation about** _ **that man**_ **in chapter 4 that have dark brown hair and eyes** (the one Tsuna accidently met and run away from) **:** His relationship with Tsuna is that of a prey and predator in which Tsuna was the _prey_. _That man_ and the other man in the flashback after that encounter is the same so _that man_ claimed (manhandled, sexually assaulted, sexually abused, toyed) Tsuna first when he was only 10. I'm sorry that their relationship wasn't clear so here is the clarification.

 **December 21 &22, 2016: Betaed **by _**Pure Red Crane**_

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn... so no suing!

 **Chapter 6**

 _("MOM!" Tsuna screamed, anguish layering his voice. His mother, his lovely and kind mother... Why was she lying down? Why was her head leaking with so much… blood?_

" _Mom…!" he screamed again with hoarse voice. The tiny brunet ran toward his mother. Why was there so much blood? Why was his mother bleeding?_

" _Mom!" Tsuna sobbed as he buried his face on her chest, crying and screaming for help, for someone to help his mother, for his mother to wake up. He didn't notice that he had slipped into the dark abyss of unconsciousness.)_

Instead of being greeted by a white ceiling, or even the color _red,_ Tsuna was greeted by black beady onyx eyes staring down at him in an unnerving fashion – not blinking, only staring at him as if he was some kind of specimen. Wait, wasn't that...?

He stared unblinking when his mind couldn't process the information staring at his face.

Silence descended, his mind coming up blank, and then it was disrupted by the girlish shrieking of a startled young boy. Reborn was staring down at him in a creepy way. The brunet was promptly flung towards the wall. The shrieking seized in an instant and was replaced by a groan and a hiss of pain.

"I..." He gulped down, _'Don't know how it came to this...'_ He inwardly cried a river of tears as his body protested at the abuse he just suffered from so early in the morning. He was confused as to why he just woke up and saw that Mafia baby being creepy...He shuddered. _'That's just plain creepy.'_ He gulped down to ease his parched throat.

Tsuna gingerly rubbed his head in a soothing manner while he got up from his sprawled position on the floor. The brunet made his way to the bathroom in autopilot, ignoring everything and anything because he wasn't in the mood to deal with tedious matters like crazy Mafia babies, and don't forget the green chameleon shape shifting into a weapon or those powerful kick. He still thought that Reborn was some kind of super baby.

* * *

He pressed his palm against the edge of the sink. The sound of water running from the faucet against the sink was inaudible to his ears. All he could hear was his garbled heaving of acid. Tears were produced at the edge of his eyes due to heaving and his other hand clutched his empty stomach, scraping his nails against his very skin.

' _Mom.'_

Frustrated tears filled his eyes and his retching slowly dimmed. When the sound of the running water finally became loud to his ears and his retching stopped, Tsuna reached for his palm. He took a shuddering breath to calm his nerves. He looked at his hand, palm filled with water. The boy took a mouthful of tap water from it, rinsing his mouth while tasting the acidicity. He wanted the taste gone. So he repeated the action, taking more water.

It took a minute of rinsing until the acidic taste left his mouth, though it still had that slightly bitter taste. It likely wouldn't disappear until he managed to eat something or brush his teeth. He took another breath with his eyes closed and opened his eyes as he exhaled.

The sound of running water filled his ears, and the yellowish acidic bile from the sink was washed away long ago. His face felt sticky, so he pressed both his palm on the faucet. When there was enough tap water, he washed his face with it.

Tsuna moved without thinking. He washed his face with water, pressing his fingers on his cheeks, checking to see if it was still sticky with sweat and tears. He then washed his face with fragrant soap and rinsed his face. The teen also brushed his teeth to get rid of the acidic taste in his mouth, replacing it with minty freshness. He also took a cold bath.

He left the bathroom, his body feeling refreshed and his mind like a mush.

The brunet changed into his uniform. When he headed downstairs, he slipped on his footing. At least it happened when he was three steps away from the ground floor, or he would have fallen all the way down, but he managed to escape that embarrassment. With a blink, Tsuna made his way to the kitchen.

' _So today is June 21 and on...'_ Tsuna's lips curled upward into a self-depreciating smile.

The student made their breakfast. He was tempted to make a breakfast only for himself and not acknowledge Reborn's presence, but that would be really rude and his mother loved children, so he made Reborn's share of breakfast too. Their breakfast was a silent one. Tsuna was yawning from time to time and Reborn seemed fine with not engaging in any conversation with him. Either way, silence was very much accepted.

Tsuna didn't know that Reborn was discreetly observing and studying him with unfathomable black eyes. The baby was searching and dissecting every sign, every move, every facial expression, and the way Tsuna's eyes flash with emotions. Reborn could now easily distinguish when he knew what to look for. And along the way, Reborn _sees_.

* * *

Going to school had never been a good time, especially when it was always so early. Tsuna loved sleeping more than anything and he couldn't sleep through the whole morning or he would be late and then bitten to death. And that wasn't good. Despite not really minding the pain, even if he kept complaining about it, that didn't mean he liked getting hit by Hibari's tonfas. Those bloody pieces of metal hurt and Hibari had a terrifying aura that just screamed _I'll bite you to death._ That always makes him shriek. On another note, now that he had experienced Reborn's beatings, the brunet could see the likeliness between the two and it was horrifying thought.

Still, Tsuna could say that this morning was the same as all his mornings, normal and monotonous, aside from his nightmares, which usually hit him around this month, and more on the next. He also still got chased by a bulldog with its leash unbound, not a Chihuahua. He wasn't afraid of little dogs now. He still managed to trip on a pebble on the road, some days he saved himself from falling at the last second, other days he would fall hard.

Everything was the same, nothing worthy had happened or had grabbed his attention. Tsuna wouldn't think about the nightmare. He wouldn't, he _won't_.

Tsuna heard the distinct clank of heels hitting on the road, walking in the same direction as him. He caught the familiar sight of short orange hair and the familiar face of a certain school idol and classmate. When Sasagawa Kyoko saw him, her eyes lightened and she greeted him with a polite smile and greeting. "Good morning, Sawada-san."

Such kind words were unbefitting for a lowly scum such as himself. Tsuna could already imagine those sneering angry words directed at him by everyone on school campus. He inwardly sighed. It was a good thing this exchange happened without any witness.

"G-Good morning too, Sasagawa-san." he tentatively answered with an embarrassed blush marring on his cheeks and a nervous stutter. Sasagawa just had a bright disposition that he couldn't help but compare with his... He inwardly shook that train of thought.

After they exchanged greetings, Kyoko continued on her merry way as Tsuna lagged behind. He didn't want to be seen walking with the school idol. It would be a big blow on his reputation.

Unlike him, Sasagawa Kyoko was the school campus idol. She was polite and kind. She didn't call him Dame-Tsuna. Instead, she would have that displeased glint in her eyes and pursed lips. Tsuna appreciated that she wasn't the same as the other students. He would secretly glance her way to see if she would also laugh at him. She wouldn't. The fellow teen would just stare as if she wanted to chastise her many lots of friends until one of her friends gave her a look, telling her not to do anything. She was a good girl. At least her friends knew that her kindness knew no bounds and would tell her to let it go. Tsuna would feel somewhat relaxed to escape mortal peril. He knew that if Kyoko voiced her thoughts, his bullying would only escalate. That wouldn't help him at all.

* * *

School was the same. When he arrived late, Hibari had bitten him to death for not only being late, but for skipping classes those previous days. Tsuna's teacher merely gave him a cursory glance when he arrived limping and sporting visible sets of bruises. His classmates snickered at his unfortunate accident as usual.

Tsuna's classes went the same: got called out in the middle of the class to answer nonsensical questions, wasn't able to answer correctly, resulting in annoyance from his teachers, followed by tirade of words describing his incompetency and how it was a waste of time to even call him out during class, classmates snickering silently on their seats. During all this, the brunet bore it all in stride, blocking everything that was said, not paying attention at all and let his sleepiness dull his mind. He even felt like sleeping with eyes open as he paid no attention to everything.

His lunch break was relatively fine. Tsuna managed to get away from his bullies before they could snatch his money, no matter how minimal it was, and he hastily ate lunch. His afternoon classes were the same as his morning classes. The brunet zoned out everything.

When the bell rang, signalling end of school, Tsuna immediately ran away, nervously gripping his sling bag in a tight grip. It wasn't like he was paranoid. He just thought that his things might stumble from his bag and picking it up would be time consuming, which would most likely end with him being pushed by the crowd.

Tsuna almost made it safely to the gate until he was yanked by the arm. He inwardly cursed.

"Dame-Tsuna," An arm rested on Tsuna's shoulder. He slightly flinched at that action. It was as if they were friends, but it wasn't. "Leaving already? You only just got back. Why don't you treat us at the arcade?" It didn't feel like a question. Tsuna tried to scoot away from the heavy hold, but failed, so he prompted for verbal rejection.

"Uhh... I-" He nervously gulped down when his throat clamped shut. "I n-need to go...home early."

There was mocking laughter. "There is no one waiting for you, Dame-Tsuna, so why don't we have some fun?"

 _There is no one waiting for you. There is no one waiting for you at home. There is no mother waiting for you at home._

He stilled at that statement.

When he came to himself, Tsuna was already being dragged somewhere by his three bullies. An arm pushed him into the alley, making him fall on the dirtied road. His empty wallet was thrown at his chest as if it was trash. His bag was ransacked, his things haphazardly thrown downward, and his empty bag was tossed at his face with a smack.

"Tch. There wasn't much money here." the guy who had grabbed him earlier said with an irritated voice.

"Yep. Besides being alone, Dame-Tsuna is also poor." another voice said, then he mockingly laughed.

"Let's go, Dame-Tsuna isn't worth beating." another voice said with a dismissing voice.

The first voice grumbled and, with a last look at him, kicked him in the legs before walking away with a huff.

Tsuna sat there, looking pathetic with his things scattered. He took a breath and stood, wiping off the dirt clinging to his pants. The brunet sighed resignedly when he saw his scattered, dirtied things and he dutifully picked them up, stuffing the objects inside his bag.

There was a small voice wishing that he had been beaten.

* * *

Dinner with Reborn was the same as breakfast. The silence between them was becoming normal. Tsuna thought it would continue until he slept, but Reborn, the crazy baby, had other plans, like threatening to shoot him if he didn't finish another stack of homework that had been created just for the student. Of course, when Tsuna pointed out that he wouldn't answer those questions, he was promptly kicked on the face. Seriously, why was he even tolerating this blatant show of abuse? _'Ahh, I forgot that the bullies didn't beat me. Now I want to be beaten. There's something wrong with me_ ,' Tsuna mused. _'Nah, I'm just being a moody brooding young cute boy.'_ The brunet almost laughed aloud at his thoughts. That was when Reborn, being a spartan Mafia baby, shoot at him twice.

Those warning shots created bullet crates in his wall and... _'My home expense!'_

"Reborn! Stop being mean and don't shoot the wall! Replacing those is expensive!" Tsuna yelled at Reborn with an angry huff, crossing his arms against his chest to look like a petulant child.

Reborn merely shrugged it off and drawled on, "You can afford it."

Tsuna glared at the baby, but before he could yell/question about why there were bullet holes, Reborn cocked his green gun at him.

At the end of that torture session he reluctantly agreed that he will finish the accursed stack of homeworks albeit with hard feelings and all because he doesn't have any choice plus Reborn was pointing a gun at him and he looks so intimidating at that moment.

It still didn't answer his question on whether or not if he should talk about what happened to his wall to have so many bullet holes.

' _Damn it.'_ Tsuna internally cried as he tried and tried to answer the homework questions Reborn had given him, knowing that if he couldn't finish it, he would be beaten up.

But really, wasn't this what he wanted, to be beaten up, to forget the pain in his heart?

* * *

Tsuna closed his eyes, planning to sleep, but it eluded him. Instead, he opened his eyes and lifted his left hand as if reaching for something.

 _(He saw his small petite hands covered with blood.)_

Then the image disappeared, replaced by his bloodless hand. He stared at it impassively, a slight twinge of something stayed rooted in his heart. When the brunet opened his eyes again, he stared at the ceiling with his hand resting on his stomach.

 _(There was a growl from a much older man. Then Tsuna saw himself, his slightly younger self covered with hand-like bruises. That older man gripped his younger self by the hair in a surely painful way. And his younger self groaned in pain, yet his eyes looked so dazed, blissfully sighing and making erotic looks as the man above inflicted pain and pleasure.)_

He blinked and sighed. The image was something so normal that looking at it repeatedly became an annoyance. It slightly disturbed him how he could so easily imagine the acts that was inflicted to him. But he grew accustomed to it. The memory only gave him ghostly pain at the pit of his stomach now. Wait, why was he even thinking about that? There was no way it would help him fall asleep.

He shook his head to get rid of his previous memory.

There was a few weeks left until summer break. He would be able to have fun soon. He just had to wait, which he was pretty used to.

Silence descended, yet he still remained awake as he stared at the ceiling and thought morosely, _'I wonder what I should do on the anniversary.'_

 **To be continued…**

 **A/N: Kindly leave a review and criticism *inserts smiley here***

 **Timeline:** It is only June 21 in this chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks for all the new reviews, favorites, and follows~**

 **Long Rant** (cuz Im at youtube watching crack khr vids)

 **Mukuro: I will not share my fangirl with Hibari~ The fans loves my face and my laugh~ I have more yaoi fanfics out there than Ed from FMA~ Hibari and Mukuro: Fangirl Addiction~ It is not a sin~ We just know the kind who loves 18-69~ And it's not a loss if our paths don't cross~ As fangirls you'll see we'll be here to make you squee~** ([DWB] KHR! Abridged - Fangirl Addiction)

 **Tsuna: Title~ Target too~ My hair comes into view~ A lot of wind~ I'm looking down and found a little guy~ Reborn: I lift my head and smile because I know he's gonna die~ I shoot my gun~ Tsuna: This isn't fun~ Where did my shirt go?~ I punch the screen~ Trampoline~ Look into my soul~ How'd I get my clothes back!?~ Who would like a great big hug?~ Ohmygod~ My hands are burning!~ Wait, I guess I'm fine~ There's the Sky~ And why am I in profile?~ Oh tell me please~ How did you freeze my friends right in their track?~ I want them back~ The shows. Our group. Pose. Pose.** ([DWB] KHR! Abridged – Literal Days) /Parody song for Drawing Days-KHR 1st opening song.

 **Hibari: I hate crowds. Tsuna: Common, Hibari it's been 2 years already, I thought you would be okay with it by now. Hibari: Tsuna** (more like it was pronounced as Tuna) **, Is a 15 year old susceptible to prostate cancer?** ([DWB] KHR! Abridged – Stand By Me)

 **Tsuna: This is more than I bargained for, yeah~ this darn Dying Will Bullet's anything but helpful here~ Cuz I don't wanna die this year~ Lying to friends saying he's not my tutor~ Why does he always show up in those freaky new costumes at school? Reborn: Shut up, you weakling, you know that they make me look cool. Reborn: He might be number one with this bullet~ And if he whines I'm gonna smash him right in his gullet~** ([DWB] KHR! Abridged – Tsuna&Reborn's Backstory)

 **Tsuna: The Boss. Reborn: The Hitman Tutor. Hayato: The Wannabe. Ryouhei: The Boxer. Takeshi: The Jock. Lambo: The Gay Kid. Kyoya: The Bad Boy. Kyoko: The Cutie. Haru: The Creepy Fangirl. I-pin: The Foreigner. Nana: The Soccer Mom. Adult!Lambo: The Gay Teen. Adult!I-pin: The Foreigner Teen. Bianchi: The Goth. Dino: The Poser. Shamal: The Perv. Fuuta: The Genius.** ([DWB] KHR! Abridged, Episode #00: Here's What You Missed)

 **December 21, 2016: Betaed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! So no suing please...!

 **Chapter 7**

Tsuna stared at the reflected image in the mirror. He could clearly see his pale clammy skin, and slightly darkened skin below his eyes. Water was dripping from his hair to his chin and to the floor.

"...Sorry." Tsuna whispered softly with his head bowed down, his locks covering his eyes, obscuring his view of the mirror.

"Sorry..." the brunet whispered again as he lifted his chin up, image of his loving mother gazing at him with sad caramel eyes appeared at the mirror, overlapping with his own reflection. Tsuna gazed at his mother's eyes with a pained look on his face. _'I'm so sorry, Mom. I keep crying no matter how long it's been.'_ But no matter how long it was, the pain still felt fresh.

Tsuna closed his eyes, the image he had conjured on the mirror disappearing, and he took a deep breath, sorting his thoughts and calming his emotions. It took him a few minutes to return to normal. The brunet opened his eyes and stared at his reflection with a dazed look on his face, blinking.

' _Smile, even if it hurts.'_ Tsuna thought to himself with self-hate as he curled his lips into a smile, letting his eyes show a _genuine_ expression on his face. The brunet lifted his hand and slowly made his index finger press on his slightly parted lips in a hushing motion. He head tilted slightly, his brow furrowed downward a bit, child-like curiosity clear in his eyes. Despite how endearing that look was – his customer _loved_ that look, he noted idly - he couldn't hide the genuine pain reflecting in his eyes.

 _(At the back of his mind, a scene flashed. A younger him was practicing how to look cute and adorable with his caramel eyes shining with a little tint of orange. Tears filled eyes and pouting lips quivered. On the mirror, his image reflected back a young body littered with slightly fading bruises of different sizes.)_

* * *

"So..." Tsuna paused his steps as he took a heavy breath, "Why are you accompanying me to school?!" he cried out in alarm, but there was certain tiredness behind his words. The brunet stared accusingly at the Mafia Baby traipsing atop of the fence. _'Continue the farce, Tsuna.'_ he thought bitterly.

"As your home tutor, I am observing your daily life." Reborn answered coolly and reasonably, but all Tsuna could hear was how bullshit that reasoning was. His eyes lightened with amusement – a change from his bitterness since this morning - but he masked it with a glare, "As if I-"

"Good morning, Sawada-san." a familiar voice greeted the brunet. He automatically stopped talking and turned to look at the orange haired young lady with a surprise written on his face. With a blink, he greeted back politely with an embarrassed blush slightly marring his cheeks.

"Goo-" Tsuna's voice was suddenly stuck to his throat, so he repeated his greeting, "Good morning, Sasagawa-san."

Kyoko remained smiling at him, likely not noticing Tsuna's sudden pause, but then her gaze landed to the Mafia baby standing on the fence next to him. She looked at the baby with delighted eyes, "How cute!"

' _That...would have been my line if Reborn hadn't hit me the first time I saw him.'_ Tsuna looked at them and saw Kyoko looking enraptured by Reborn's _cute_ look, which made him internally roll his eyes and shoot an exasperated sidelong glance to the Mafia baby. It would have looked like jealousy if Reborn caught him.

"Ciaossu." Reborn greeted with his normal _adoring_ smile. At least Reborn was polite, except to the brunet – of course, that Mafia baby was a sadist who amused himself with his pain.

"Good morning." Kyoko said with an angelic smile. From Tsuna's position, he could see that she was now emitting a flowery background and it _sparkled_?! _'Why are there sparkles?!'_ He looked at her incredulously. This was Tsuna's first time seeing such a thing. It must be some kind of hallucination because he didn't see that yesterday! He dismissed the snickering notion, his mind telling him that his mask cracked just from seeing sparkles.

Kyoko looked at Reborn with wonder in her eyes, "Why are you wearing a suit?"

' _I think you mean, why is he wearing a super expensive suit?'_ He made another sidelong glance at Reborn's suit, also wanting to get away from looking at the sparkles.

"Because I'm in the Mafia." Reborn answered normally. That made the brunet a double take at the Mafia baby with wide incredulous eyes. _'Are they collaborating to make me look at them incredulously or something?_ ' Tsuna idly noted. Wait, the Mafia was supposed to be some kind of secret organization, wasn't it? Why was he broadcasting it in broad daylight?

In the back of his mind, Tsuna idly wondered if Iemitsu ever said those same words to his mother. She would probably only smile at him.

He surmised that knowing and being in the Mafia is a secret since his father constantly lies to his own family about his _work_. So, why was Reborn saying it on broad daylight? During Reborn's admittance, Tsuna could feel a growing irritation towards his father. If only his no-good father had told his mother...

"Mafia? Wow, that's so cool!" Kyoko said with a happy tone, clapping. Of course, she likely didn't believe what Reborn said and was merely indulging him. But the moment, Tsuna heard those words, he blinked his eyes and turned slowly to stare at the fellow schoolmate. When he did, he saw and heard something else.

 _("Mafia? That's so cool! Being in the Mafia must be taxing. Why don't you eat some more?" The voice of his mother suddenly rang clear on his ears. Tsuna could visualize his mother clapping her hands and smiling at the infant. Not believing the Mafia part, but instead asking if he wanted more food. His mother smiled even brighter at her own question, already expecting a positive answer.)_

Tsuna finally returned to reality when he felt weight on his shoulder. With another blink, the image he saw slowly faded.

"You like her, don't you?" a squeaky voice rang near the brunet that made him turn his head to his right. There he saw Reborn sitting on his shoulder, looking normal. But Reborn was looking at him with his beady black eyes knowingly.

Growing uncomfortable with that gaze, Tsuna turned his head away and towards the retreating back of Kyoko, who had just waved and said something he didn't even hear. The brunet gulped down nervously as the remnant of the image he saw still swirled at the edge of his mind's eye and put a heavy feeling on his heart.

As Tsuna stared at her disappearing form, his mind wandered to what Reborn had said. He furrowed his brow downward, ignoring Reborn's gaze from earlier as he tried to recall the words that had been uttered. When finally he processed Reborn's question, it instantly resulted with a crimson red blush and a startled step back, dislodging Reborn from his shoulder and making the Mafia child hop in front of him.

"N-No!" Tsuna squeaked as he blushed embarrassingly. He coughed at the accusation. He shook his head vigorously to dispel the blush heating up his cheeks.

' _Why did Reborn ask such a ludicrous thing?!'_ he thought in alarm, his previous dazed thoughts temporarily forgotten.

"Then you don't like her?" Reborn asked disappointedly. Tsuna's eyes widened at the implication as he stared down at the infant with growing discomfort. Not liking a girl would be like saying they weren't pretty or cute.

"No! I mean yes!" Tsuna then looked away abruptly, cheeks still tinged with blush, "I mean...I...It's not like I don't l-like her!" Tsuna paused and he unconsciously fiddled his fingers against each other, peering at Reborn with wide embarrassed eyes, and flushed cheeks, "J-Just not in t-the way you mean."

And Tsuna erupted into a deeper red. The brunet internally wished for a hole to swallow him up in his embarrassment.

With embarrassment getting to him, Tsuna nervously bit his bottom lip, "W-Wait!" He gulped down while willing his blush to go away. The brunet just realized that any more excuses would only lead to more embarrassment, so he blurted out the first line that came to mind, "Why are you even asking about my love life?!"

With only silence as his answer while feeling the amusement oozing from the Mafia baby, Tsuna stared at the Mafia baby in front of him, his eyes wide and with every word, his clarity grew and his blush slowly faded. "You...just want to embarrass me, don't you?"

Reborn's lips curled upward and his other hand tilted his fedora to shade his eyes, but that smirk was still visible and it was all the proof Tsuna needed. With that, Tsuna's fading blush returned tenfold. He just showed embarrassment to a _baby_ when talking about his love life.

"I-I'm going ahead!" Tsuna finally said with a hurried, almost screaming tone, his face feeling hot from the blush on his cheeks. He started walking fast, almost jogging, and with every step he took, the brunet wanted more and more to hide under the bed in shame.

With Tsuna's silhouette slowly disappearing, Reborn's lips pressed into a thin line. His eyes lingered on the lithe teenager walking ahead raptly.

If he wasn't the World Greatest Hitman, Reborn would have taken that chance to use the Dying Will Bullet on his dame student. Tsuna was showing the signs that he liked Kyoko, but Reborn knew he wasn't. The emotions that were in the brunet's eyes were different from his actions, though there was the possibility that Tsuna would develop romantic feelings for the orange haired young lady in the future.

Leon, Reborn's trusted partner, crawled onto his shoulder. It seemed that tutoring Sawada Tsunayoshi would be troublesome than with Pipsqueak Dino.

* * *

Tsuna face palmed twice that day. The reason was not because everyone was a nuisance and an utter thorn on his side, but because he couldn't forget about Reborn's words. It was mortifying. To think that he was manipulated by an infant, but even more, the brunet was definitely embarrassed by those questions. For him, who was adept at seducing older men, to suddenly act like some teenager talking about crushes even if he didn't like her in that way was...He banged his head against the desk as his cheeks heated up again.

"Sawada-kun! If you want to disrupt my class, why don't you just get out of here?" a booming voice said, making Tsuna sit up straight on his chair as his classmates jeered, whistled, and laughed at his blunder. He had completely forgotten where he was. The brunet cursed internally at that.

"S-Sorry! I won't do it again, M-Ma'am." Tsuna apologized with a squeak, his head lowered to not meeting anyone's gaze. The teacher huffed.

"Take your seat already, and pay attention, Sawada-kun." The brunet sank in his chair and willed himself to remain small, listening to the jeering of his classmates.

Tsuna decided to pay attention to his lesson after that and stopped thinking about any distractions. However, it still didn't make his blush completely go away.

* * *

The day passed in a blur and Tsuna made his way home. With a sudden epiphany, the brunet made a detour. Instead of taking the safe yet long path, he chose the short path. As for why he did, it was because he felt compelled to do so. It was an irrational thought, but there was a sudden gut feeling that he just couldn't pass off.

Tsuna clutched his bag against his chest, using it as a protective shield as he walked into darkening alley slowly. His breath was caught in his throat when he saw something just a few feet away from him in the middle of the dark alley. There was a woman leaning on the wall, looking frightened and already shivering from fear. Three older men wearing baggy clothes and metal accessories on their necks and fingers were in front of her, groping her shamelessly while pointing a knife at her.

"I'll give you money, anything! Just don't kill me!" she begged with tears cascading down her pale cheeks.

"Ho, anything?" the man pointing the knife at her said with perverted voice. The woman shakily agreed, probably not noticing what she had agreed to.

"Yes." With that confirmation he pulled the weapon away from her and it made the woman sag with relief, now thinking that she was safe. However, the man grabbed her hair in a very painful motion, eliciting a hurt cry from the woman. "Let go! Please!"

 _("Let go! Please! Not my son!" His mother's voice rang loudly in his ears.)_

Tsuna gulped down. He should run away. He shouldn't get involved with this. So why was he running _towards_ the danger? The brunet hurled his bag on the open back of the man holding the woman's hair. The impact of his bag wasn't strong, but it had the needed effect, it startled the man to let go of the woman's hair. Tsuna inwardly sighed in relief, but he stopped in his tracks when the three men turned towards him with surprise and later anger.

The man Tsuna had hit glared at him and took a step forward, all three of them forgetting the prey cowering on the wall and focusing on the menace that dared to interrupt them. Tsuna looked at the shivering woman slumped on the cement floor.

"Run!" The yell made her sit up straight, and look at him. Tsuna didn't know what she did next, focusing on the men menacingly walking towards him, one already leaping towards him. When he saw this, Tsuna leaped back, dodging the fist aimed at his face by a mere millimetre. However, he lost his momentum by that leap. During that, the man grabbed his shoulder in a bruising manner and hit him squarely on his stomach.

Tsuna let out a pained cry, and the man let go of his shoulder, letting him fall unceremoniously to the cold and hard ground then kicked him in the shoulder, eliciting a pained gasp from the brunet. At that, Tsuna coughed, but he still slowly got up, albeit shakily.

"That's what you get, you little shit." the man said, smugly. The two minions started walking towards Tsuna as the leader step back.

' _I should have run away!'_ he berated himself as he winced when one of the goons pulled his arm. They were looking around his person for money, but he only had a little with him and the goon who had pulled his arm pushed him on the floor in annoyance because of it.

' _Why did I act like a hero when I knew I stood no chance?'_ the brunet thought absent-mindedly as the two goons kicked him, kicking his stomach, kicking his legs, kicking his arms and shoulder. Yet he endured it as he tried to get back up. A part of himself welcomed the pain, screaming about how he deserved it.

"What a useless, brat." one of the goons said, but Tsuna couldn't pinpoint who as he was busy trying to get up – crawl – from his pathetic position. The kicking had stopped as well. It seemed they decided that he wasn't worth hurting. Too bad, it would have been better if they continued until he passed out.

"Tch. Really pathetic, and weak too. He's even crawling like the cockroach he is." The man who had hit him first said in displeasure. The other two goons laughed at his misery, but Tsuna paid it little attention as he focused solely on getting up.

"I bet his whore of a mother and no-good father wanted to dispose of him." one of the goons said and promptly laughed at that statement, followed by the others. Tsuna, however, paused at that statement, emotion immediately growing – bubbling – in his stomach, making him want to hurt them. He slowly got up, forcing his body to move, to defy them, in his desire to hurt them. His knees were shaking and his body wanted to rest, but he persisted. They still keep laughing at him and sharing jokes about him. The brunet was okay with that, but to badmouth his mother too? That was going too far.

"She's not." Tsuna feebly said in a small voice. It was small, almost inaudible, but the men had turned from each other to him.

The leader of the thug raised his eyebrow at him quizzically, mockingly, "What?"

Tsuna lifted his chin defiantly at them, his expression hard. "Mom is not a whore."

"Stuck a nerve, did we?" one of the goons said smugly. Tsuna glared at them. He didn't notice that his eyes were flickering from caramel to orange, but the thugs did and they did a double take at the pathetic form of the brunet with weird eye color. The leader decided that he didn't like that defying look on the brunet.

"Get rid of this pest already."

The two goons marched towards Tsuna with vicious smiles, but the brunet wasn't afraid. There was something in his gut telling him he couldn't discern yet. Tsuna was about to lunge a fist at one of the goons when suddenly, a loud displeased voice rang through the dark alley, followed by the sounds of clanking metal. They cemented his thoughts. Tsuna knew who it was.

"Herbivores. For harassing a Namimori Middle School Student," There was a menacing pause, as if a jury was judging the guilty party, "I'll bite you all to death."

The voice made them pause and Tsuna retracted his fist, letting it fall to his side.

And just this once, the brunet felt relieved at hearing that menacing catchphrase coming from the prefect of the Namimori Disciplinary School Committee, Hibari Kyoya. Because even if he wasn't the one going to hurt them, Hibari would send them to the hospital, sporting bruises that would last for months, and that was fine with him. Wasn't it?

 **To be continued…**

 **A/N: Please leave a review *insert pleading puppy look here***

 **Timeline:** This chapter is set on June 22.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, favorites and follows~**

 **December 30, 2016: Betaed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn so no suing…!

 **Chapter 8**

' _Hibari-san is really strong_ ,' Tsuna noted as he watched Hibari hit the thugs with his metal tonfas. The older boy hit them on the shoulder, grazing their legs, jabbing them squarely in the stomach and their faces. They couldn't help but beg for mercy, but Hibari just kept _biting_ them to death until they finally passed out on the floor, covered with different sets of bruises that made the brunet wince. Hibari didn't show one ounce of mercy. Perhaps falling unconscious was an act of mercy? Tsuna doubted it.

Tsuna stood frozen in his spot when Hibari had turned towards him. Hibari's menacing expression scared him. He didn't make a move, merely remaining still, but it didn't stop his beating heart and his knees from shaking. If Hibari wanted to bite him to death, Tsuna would immediately run away. Like hell would he allow himself be beaten twice that afternoon.

When Hibari had almost lifted his arm with a displeased grunt of "Herbivore," Tsuna's eyes widened and he made a startled step back. But before he could execute his plan of escape, Hibari had turned his back on him with a sway of his gakuran without even giving a backward glance. That action made it look like Hibari was ignoring him and that confused the brunet. _Oh well_ , better than getting beaten.

Tsuna sagged with relief and weakness. He almost fell down because of it, but a callused larger hand had clamped on his forearm, which made the brunet instantly stiffen and snap his eyes to a person with the distinctly pompadour hair style, which automatically labeled the other as someone from the Namimori Disciplinary Committee. This person was preventing him from falling and helped him up. With that action, Tsuna's body eased from building the tension.

"Do you want me to bring you to the hospital?"

Tsuna shook his head in answer, dipping his head in gratitude with a wince, "But thank you for helping me." And after that, he limped back home, not caring that the other teen was looking at him dubiously and wondering if the brunet could actually go home judging by the way he was holding up.

* * *

"I'm home!" Tsuna called out, not because he was expecting answer, but to make noise in the lonely, silent house. He forced down the lump in his throat when he heard a delusion of the very familiar and painful voice of his Mother greeting him back.

 _("Welcome home, Tsu-kun!")_

He kicked off his shoes with a wince, his body protesting the movement with pain and successfully taking his mind off reminiscing. The injured brunet slowly climbed up the stairs. When he went inside his room, he dropped his bag on the floor unceremoniously. After pulling a random set of clothes from his drawer, he made his way to the bathroom and turned the tap for warm water. While waiting, he took off his uniform and checked out his bruises.

' _It looks like I'm going to be sporting bruises for a week or two_ ,' Tsuna concluded. Well, at least there was only a slight graze on his face. That would fade within two days. The brunet tenderly poked his left shoulder blade and immediately winced. Thanks to small mercy, it wasn't his right and he had no broken bones or deep gashes, or else he would have had harder time. He sighed as he looked down. There was reddish violet marring his left shoulder blade, stomach and legs.

When he noticed that the water was warm enough, Tsuna stepped into the bath. He laid there and let the warm water soothe his body, his bruises stinging at first. Tsuna closes his eyes, tiredness and exhaustion almost getting to him, but he willed himself not to fall asleep. It wouldn't do him any good to fall asleep now, despite how tempting it was to just sleep away all his exhaustion.

 _("Ara~ Tsu-kun, don't sleep in the tub_.")

The exasperated yet fond voice of his mother rang behind his ears, somewhat washing away his current tiredness. _'I didn't hear anything.'_ The brunet squashed down the emotional turmoil he was feeling and winced when he not-so-accidentally poked his bruised shoulder.

Despite how soothing the warm water was on his body or how the pain ran all over his body, it didn't stop his thoughts from swirling and jumping through different loops regarding that insult.

They called his mother a... _whore_. Tsuna opened his eyes with brows creased against each other while he absent-mindedly started washing his body and other body necessities. He didn't register that he was scrubbing a bit too harshly or when he had dug his finger nails against his arms. _'But Hibari had already bitten them.'_

The brunet tried to console himself and dampen the negative feelings emitting within his heart, but he still felt angry that it didn't do anything.

The brunet took a deep breath, trying to stop the angry feelings in his heart and forcefully tried to think of something else, something to distract him, to forget that _word_.

Then he started thinking about his mother's death anniversary and he shot down that train of thought. It wouldn't do him any good to be depressed now… maybe later. Tsuna knew his thoughts would circle back to that statement those thugs said and it would only result with him throwing a tantrum.

Maybe he should think of something boring and monotonous? Well, there was school. It was boring, also annoying, and totally not worthy to think about.

His schoolmates? No. He didn't like them. Thinking about them only brought uncomfortable thoughts, like unpleasant thoughts how he was Dame-Tsuna and that was a circle of depressing thoughts.

His teachers? He didn't like them too. They kept giving homework that weren't tackled in their lessons. They also liked to give pop quizzes, which he had grown to despise. But at least his teachers weren't mean. No one failed him...Well, he wouldn't allow himself to fail since it would ruin his summer plan.

His classmates? Only Sasagawa Kyoko would talk to him…Tsuna promptly blushed again when he remembered Reborn's teasing _._ Thinking of his blunder that morning was also no good. He didn't want to think about anything embarrassing, despite how successfully it was managing to make him stop feeling depressed and angry.

He continued washing his body, now in a more sedated manner as he cleaned his bruised skin.

Reborn? Thinking about him would only make him think about his nonexistent love life with Sasagawa Kyoko. When he felt the tell-tale sign of a blush heating up his cheeks, Tsuna sighed. It would seem that any thought was unacceptable for him for the time being.

He shot down any thought regarding the Mafia. It would only make him disgusted and want to throw up.

Deeming himself clean enough, the brunet got up and wrapped a wet towel around his hips, noting the exact positions of his bruises and deciding that it could be hidden under a baggy shirt and knee-size pants, though nothing too fitting. He would need to wrap bandage on his bruises. But it wasn't that obvious...

' _Maybe I should stop thinking all together.'_ He decided as he made himself presentable and let the silence occupy his mind.

* * *

When Tsuna arrived in the kitchen, he saw Reborn sipping coffee, making him throw a questioningly look at the Mafia baby. Who drank coffee before dinner? ' _Of course, Reborn_.' The baby ignored his silent question.

"I have ordered take-out for the both of us." Reborn called out as Tsuna made his way to the refrigerator. It made the brunet throw another quizzical look at the Mafia baby. Why would he do that? The answer he received was a pointed look at his stomach and left shoulder blade. Tsuna's eyes widened.

"How did you..?" The brunet slowly trailed off, unsure of how to proceed.

"Observation is a basic skill to have as a Mafia Boss, Dame-Tsuna."

' _Of course_.' The brunet thought irritatingly as he sighed. He really should have expected the answer to be Mafia related.

Tsuna sat on the opposite seat from Reborn and looked at the baby before abruptly turning away with an embarrassed blush on his face. Now that he was sitting across from the infant, the brunet's thoughts immediately turned back to the time when Reborn asked him about his love life. He remained silent as he willed his blush to go away while the Mafia baby let him be for the moment.

Tsuna didn't know why, but the silence was uncomfortable, making him unconsciously fidget on his seat.

"Say," the brunet started unsurely as he slowly tilted his head to peer at the Mafia baby, who had stopped from sipping his coffee to look at him inquiringly.

"What is it?"

"Where did you go this morning? I thought you would accompany me to school." Tsuna didn't really know what to ask, but as this question left his mouth, he found himself growing curious. Where did Reborn go after that embarrassing moment? The Mafia baby raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I did." Tsuna looked at the baby with confusion in his eyes.

"But I didn't see you there." Tsuna asked after a blink.

"Of course you wouldn't." Reborn answered with a smug air around him. Tsuna felt that Reborn was being condescending with him. It made him dismiss the conversation with a roll of his eyes.

With those few words exchanged between them, silence descended between them again. Tsuna concluded that this kind of silence was better than earlier. He could stop feeling embarrassed when he looked at the baby. It was probably because Reborn didn't point the incident out.

When the doorbell rang a minute later, Tsuna stood up, knowing that it was the take-out Reborn had talked about earlier. He graciously accepted the food with a polite yet seductive smile he automatically gave to men in certain age-range and this man, being in his mid-20's, was included. And when the delivery man flushed at his smile, Tsuna grimaced, already knowing that the man had fallen for his charming smile, but still morally blinded to do anything than to admire him.

The brunet didn't expect to see a _sick_ person that would fall for his smile in Namimori, though it seemed that he could have some fun if he wanted to. Tsuna shrugged off that thought. Tokyo was a better place to do those things.

Before the man left, he left his phone number and, being a good person, Tsuna politely accepted the card, which he crumpled into his fist as the man disappeared, but, before he could throw it in the bin, his mind abruptly changed. The brunet unfolded it and hastily put it back on his pocket, deciding that maybe it could have its use later.

Arriving at the kitchen, Tsuna set the take-out on the table and he prepared the necessary utensils. When a polite _thanks for the meal_ was exchanged, they started eating and made small talk from time to time. Those little conversations were lost to the brunet. He was too absentminded at the moment.

* * *

Tsuna groaned as he propped his cheeks against the desk. He had just finished his homework and Reborn was currently checking it. The brunet sighed and closed his eyes, his limbs protesting and aching, especially more so after writing a five-page essay that Reborn had him make, despite it not being included in his current lessons at school.

' _I want to sleep.'_ Tsuna thought tiredly, burying his face in his arms.

"Dame-Tsuna." Reborn's voice rang in the brunet's ears. He just wanted to sleep, and that desire prompted him to ignore the baby with a mumble of displeasure at being interrupted from his rest.

A second later, a gunshot rang in the room, making Tsuna jerk to his feet, eyes wide with apprehension. When the brunet saw Reborn and his pet chameleon-turned-weapon, he stared accusingly at the Mafia Baby. "W-What the hell was that for?! I'm going to sleep and you do that."

"You're still not finished with the essay, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn answered normally. Tsuna gaped at the baby.

"I am! Why are you saying otherwise?" The brunet groaned in despair at the end as his shoulder blade started to ache painfully from jerking on his feet. He should rest, but the tutor was not letting him and it started getting on his nerves.

"There's another five-page essay I gave you, or did you forget?" Reborn said in a matter of fact tone and with a raised eyebrow. Despite him being absentminded through Reborn's statement, Tsuna was sure that the tutor didn't say that there were two five-page essays…Wait. He stared at the baby accusingly and then he looked away with a huff, "I won't do it. Why don't you just leave me alone, you sadistic Mafia baby, so I can sleep?"

 _Click._

"What was that, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn asked in a false oh-so-innocent voice that made Tsuna sweat dropped. The brunet was pissed with Reborn and this situation was bad. He might like pain, but when Reborn hurt him, it hurt like hell and he didn't want any of that, not now, not when he could feel that he was gonna pass out any second! The brunet slowly inched away from the trigger-happy baby as he threw a nervous look at the gun.

"I…didn't say anything." Tsuna said slowly, letting out a forced nervous chuckle. Reborn made his trademark smirk of sadistic amusement, causing the brunet to involuntarily shriek without meaning to.

"Hieee!"

' _I swear he's up to no good!'_ Tsuna screamed in his mind.

"I-I didn't say anything!" he repeated, shaking his head vehemently as he tried to pass it off as nothing, but he failed, which made him cringe again. He was able to deceive so many old men, so why is his acting skill failing him in front of Reborn? Tsuna moaned internally in despair. _'Oh no! Don't hurt me!'_

The brunet nervously forced himself not to look in Reborn's direction, trying to hide his terror. "I'm going to finish that essay now!"

There was an 'hmph.' Tsuna was tempted to sag in relief that Reborn believed him and wasn't doing anything to him, but there was another five-page essay he needed to finish despite his sore limbs and dropping eyes.

Hopefully, he wouldn't pass out from exhaustion before he finished it.

Who was he kidding? There was no possible way could he finish it in time when he was so damn tired, sleepy and overall exhausted. Tsuna inwardly cried and set himself up to work as long as he can. _'Curse you, Reborn!'_

* * *

Just as expected, Tsuna was on his way to the third page when he passed out from exhaustion. However, Reborn was surprised that Tsuna was able to hold out that long. He had expected his dame student to pass out during dinner from his injuries, but from the looks of it, that child had a high pain tolerance.

Reborn hopped down the desk to Tsuna's bed and took the blanket from the bed. He hopped back to the desk and hung the sheet loosely on the brunet's shoulders. Despite it being near summer, his student was shivering.

The tutor pulled something from inside the desk drawer. He stared at the crumpled card with the hurried handwriting of a phone number in blue ink. Reborn's lips quirked upward into a smirk. Reborn then made a glance at the slumbering teen, who was currently being plagued by his dreams, shivering. The fedora wearer returned the card to its previous location and silently closed the drawer.

The baby gave one last glance to his student as his trusted partner crawled on his arm. Reborn nuzzled Leon's head with his chubby fingers. When he decided it was time for them to sleep, Reborn immediately changed into his sleeping attire. His last thought before falling asleep was _'Let me see how you will fair, Tsuna.'_

 **To be continued…**

 **A/N: Please leave reviews.. It's kinda sad when I only get one review, it makes me think what if there were no review at all?**

 **Timeline:** Still set on June 22.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks for all the reviews on the previous chapter!~ I'm so happy I received lots of review~ *giggles* Because I am happy, here is the latest chapter~ Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows!~**

 **February 7, 2017: Betaed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn so no suing please...!~

 **Chapter 9**

"I don't want to go to school." Tsuna mumbled to himself, closing his eyes. His shoulder and arms were stiff from sleeping in a sitting position and his bruises hurt too. He was in no mood for doing anything.

"Get up." Reborn's voice rang somewhere above.

"I don't want to..."

"Get up, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn repeated and he rolled on his back, not facing Reborn's direction.

"No..." Tsuna moaned sleepily.

There was a nudge on the brunet's leg, but he deliberately ignored it. However, when he felt a small chubby hand on his right arm, Tsuna automatically tensed and, before he could open his eyes, his arm was twisted in an uncomfortable way, making him wince and bolt upright in a sitting position.

"T-That hurts!" He groaned, trying to shake off Reborn's hold on his arm, but the tutor didn't let go, merely tightening his grip, "Le-let go!" But Reborn didn't let go. The fedora wearer still had the brunet in a tight grip. Tsuna cursed outwardly, "Damn!" As the student tried to wiggle his way out of Reborn's grip, he hissed in pain. When the baby didn't let up, he was tempted to curse the Mafia baby.

"You're going to be late, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said coolly, still holding him in a tight grip. Tsuna could detect a sense of amusement in Reborn's voice and it made the brunet throw a glare before shouting when he caught sight of the clock, "It is only 5 o'clock in the morning!"

They continued like that, Tsuna throwing glares at Reborn while wiggling and trying to break free from the baby's strong hold. Reborn the sadistic baby wouldn't let up from his grasp.

' _Damn him.'_ Tsuna cursed internally, throwing another glare at Reborn. He winced once again when the baby tightened his grip. The brunet wasn't in the mood to tolerate this blatant abuse of his body when it was already protesting from yesterday and today's pain. Basically, he just wanted to sleep.

The brunet gritted his teeth and opened his mouth to say something along the lines of _let go already asshole_ "You asshole..." He started heatedly, but his protest died on his lips when Reborn suddenly let go and Tsuna's face abruptly and painfully meets the wall. _'That fucking hurt!'_ the student screamed in his mind, wincing and groaned with pain. He glared at the Mafia baby with all the hatred he could muster.

"You kicked me on the head again, you damn Mafia baby!" While Tsuna's hand worked on soothing the pain in the back of his skull, Reborn dared to raise his brow disapprovingly at his words.

"You should hold back your wondrous vocabulary. It is unfitting for a future Mafia Boss." Tsuna was tempted to get up and get the hell out of his room, completely pissed off, but this was his room, he owned it, it was his.

"Shut up! I'm not going to be a Mafia Boss! I'm never going to be one!" Tsuna narrowed his eyes further to reinforce his venomously angry image, "So why don't you just disappear because I am not in the mood to tolerate your bullshit, you sadistic asshole?"

The brunet expected to be hit again, but what he didn't expect was for Reborn's smirk to widen. It was as if Reborn saw something he was satisfied with. That made Tsuna bristle with irritation, and he hissed like a cat.

Tsuna managed to open his mouth to say "Go-" before his forehead met Reborn's heel. He was knocked unconscious on the bed and went to dreamland. The young brunet lay sprawled on the bed in an uncomfortable position and mouth hanging agape.

Meanwhile, Reborn looked at his Dame student with satisfaction in his eyes before walking out of the room.

 **~linebreak~**

 _("Mom!" The hoarse screaming voice of a young child echoed in the expanse of the blood-red room. "Mom...!" The screaming became the muffled sobbing of a child with blood-soaked hands and clothes. He could feel a burning feeling in his heart, making him sob and shake pitifully. "Mom..." he whispered brokenly, lifting his gaze towards the cold, bloodied body of his mother and he abruptly hugged his knees._

" _Somebody..." The tiny brunet started weakly, trailing off. There was no use of asking for help. He knew that, but he still opened his mouth to continue fruitlessly, "...help Mom." He knew how futile it was, but it was the only thing he knew to do. Then suddenly there was a loud bang and he jerked with wide terrified eyes. He curled himself, sobbing pitifully. The sudden presence of a hand in his hair made him jerk his head upward. However, what he saw made him stare with astonishment._

" _Don't worry, Tsu-kun." The familiar voice of his Mother rang near him and he made a leap to push his currently kneeling – and bloodless - Mother away, and shout a warning,_

" _Mom! Behind you!" However he was too late because there was another bang but this time it was louder and it resulted with his ears ringing. And he saw the form of his Mother face being covered with blood as her body fell sideways into a painful slow motion.)_

Tsuna jerked from his sleeping position with wide eyes and a gasp. He immediately bolted from his upright position and headed towards the bathroom, his aching and pained body crying angrily without his notice. The brunet didn't threw up everything his body could into the sink. He could taste the very bitter taste of the acrid bile in his mouth. It burned his throat, his shaking hands gripping the edge of the sink with a clawing grip.

The brunet continued heaving for what felt like forever, but it gradually eased and he turned on the faucet, washing away the evidence and his pain. He continued at the inside of the sink, watching even when water was all that was left. He stared pitifully, small sobs leaving his lips.

Tsuna continued sobbing until it eased into small sniffling and hiccups, but his heart still felt so heavy. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and exhaled. His breath stayed rooted to his throat when a sudden voice rang inside the bathroom and he felt a sudden weight on his right shoulder.

"Tsuna." The student slowly turned on his right and saw Reborn sitting in his shoulder with his almost all-black attire and his pet chameleon-morphing-into-weapon. Instead of wondering why Reborn was here, he inwardly panicked and stood like a statue in instinctual fear. Reborn suddenly pulled a fist of the brunet's hair, making him yelp.

"Ow! What was that for?" Tsuna asked, throwing a reproachful look at the infant, but instead of getting an answer to his question, Reborn moved on with a nonchalant voice.

"Hurry up or you'll be late." With those parting words, Reborn walked away and left the brunet wondering why Reborn appeared in the bathroom after his momentary show of weakness.

Tsuna slowly shook his head, dispelling his thought and focused on splashing his face with the tap water.

 **~linebreak~**

"Oh. Good morning, Sawada-kun." the short haired girl greeted and Tsuna slowly stopped running, looking back tiredly after taking in a loud lump of air for his exhausted lungs.

"G-Good morning too, Sasagawa-san." The brunet smiled with a grimace due to his current exhaustion. He inwardly felt relieved that he managed to reach the school gate on time. He could avoid being bitten to death by Hibari's tonfas early in the morning. If there were two things he didn't want to experience, it was Hibari's tonfas and Reborn's sadism. Between the two, the former was something he could escape while the latter was...He shook his head. Thinking about Reborn and sadism was not good for the health of his mind.

Another voice suddenly interrupted. "Oh, it is no other than Dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna looked to Kyoko's right where the voice was coming from. There he saw a senpai in his school, Mochida Kensuke, the captain of the Kendo Club, walking up towards the girl.

"Mochida-senpai," Kyoko admonished with a frown on her innocent face. Tsuna cringed and inwardly cursed. _'Oh. Damn. She really shouldn't have...'_ Mochida made a disgruntled sidelong glance at the brunet, which he could take as a sign that he was safe...for now, before looking at Kyoko to give her his version of a charming smile, which Tsuna found quite un-charming. Mochida was obviously thinking of something lecherous about Kyoko, judging by the blush marring his tan-colored skin and the way his eyes darted somewhere between Kyoko's chest.

"Perverted senpai." Tsuna mumbled under his breath, throwing a sidelong glare in the pervert's direction. What he didn't take into account was for Mochida to hear it. Tsuna almost made a startled step back when Mochida glared holes at him, but thankfully, he didn't. Mochida made a step forward, annoyed.

"What did you say, Dame-Tsuna?" The brunet blinked before taking a glance at their surroundings. A few of his schoolmates were whispering about the commotion, making him inwardly face palm before giving a nervous look in Mochida's direction.

Tsuna didn't want to be beaten today, but if the looks Mochida was giving him was any indication, there was no way he could escape getting hurt again. But maybe he could get away another time. Maybe he should deny and explain. Probably Mochida would listen to him.

"Mo-Mochida-senpai...I didn't say anything." Tsuna waved both hands in denial, but Mochida wouldn't hear any of it.

"Shut up, Dame-Tsuna. How dare you say something unforgivable and baseless?"

' _Duh. You were!'_ Tsuna thought, and outwardly shook his head. "I d-don't know what you're talking about." he said nervously as he made another glance at the growing crowd. He winced. _Joy, what a great way to start his morning at school._

"Mochida-senpai," Kyoko started unsurely, most likely not knowing what Mochida was talking about. _'Bless your innocent soul, Sasagawa-san, but seriously, you shouldn't have greeted me. Now Mochida-senpai is looking for a way to humiliate me.'_

"How dare you say that when you stalk Kyoko-chan and look at her with impure thoughts, you perverted stalker?" Mochida growled, pointing an accusing finger at the brunet. It made Tsuna look at Mochida with wide eyes and a single thought resounding in his mind, _'Me? A perverted stalker?'_

"You disgraceful human being, how dare you do that to Kyoko-chan?!" Mochida continued like a self-righteous _hero_ while Tsuna looked at him with disbelieving eyes.

"Huh?!" Kyoko was blushing in embarrassment, looking between the two guys with wariness.

' _What the actual fuck is he saying?!'_ Tsuna stared flabbergasted at Mochida. He also made a look at Kyoko, who was blushing embarrassingly and was looking at them akin to distrust on her eyes. Kyoko seemed to be gullible enough to believe what Mochida was saying. The brunet shook his head lightly at that. "What are you saying, Mochida-senpai?" Tsuna said in mild annoyance. Instead of getting pissed off , he just took what Mochida was saying as some kind of joke.

"For your sins, I will personally smite you, Dame-Tsuna." Mochida said with his index finger pointing at the brunet accusingly, and then he laughed like a villain. "Come to the gym after classes end!" With that, the crowd started murmuring to each other and Tsuna face palmed after Mochida left, dragging the poor innocent Kyoko with him.

"Just...what the fuck happened?" Tsuna murmured to no one in particular, and ran towards the nearest bathroom, locking himself in one of the stalls. There was a distinct voice with menacing words outside, saying 'For crowding, I'll bite you all to death' followed by the sound of metal clashing against flesh. Tsuna face palmed with both hands and a soft, amused chuckle passed his lips.

' _What a great morning.'_ he thought in amusement at what Mochida had declared to him so idiotically. But he could feel a growing annoyance at the aftermath of those lies. Tsuna knew he would be beaten this afternoon, but it wasn't like he minded being labelled as a perverted stalker. It wasn't new. He was almost not looking forward to meeting Mochida, but if he didn't...Well, he would still be beaten. _'The end result is the same.'_

Tsuna walked out of the stall with an amused smile plastered on his face. He immediately wiped it off before someone saw him. It wouldn't do him any good if the rumour got wilder.

When Tsuna reached his homeroom classroom, there was noise and name-calling of his classmates. Instead of hearing the normal Dame-Tsuna, it was replaced with perverted stalker, making him sigh in annoyance. The change of name-calling was alright with him since he knew himself that he wasn't a perverted stalker, but hearing that someone adding a rumour about how they had seen him peeping on some girls changing in the school bathroom was different. It was not amusing, but highly annoying. Even if Tsuna defended himself from those rumours, it was not like people would believe him. He was Dame-Tsuna and anything he says would only be twisted by everyone around him.

The brunet made a discreet glance at the crowd circling around Kyoko's desk. There, he saw the norm, her female friends telling Kyoko how Mochida was a great man for defending a maiden's honour. Kyoko herself was looking down at her lap in embarrassment. She would throw indiscreet glances towards Tsuna, which he deliberately ignored, seemingly deep in thought.

When the teacher arrived and silenced the class, Tsuna was still contemplating what would be his best option without too many consequences. _'What to do...Run or not, which should I choose?'_

 **~linebreak~**

Tsuna was now locked, once again, inside the bathroom stall. It was lunch break and he was still contemplating what to do. If he did run, it would prove that Mochida was right and he would win by default, and later be beaten by Kyoko's fans for having _impure thoughts_ about their idol. Mochida would also beat him for running away from their fight. If he did fight, it wouldn't likely be fair. Obviously, he would lose due to the difference of their strength as well, and if he lost, he would be beaten and no one would bat an eyelash. And he would still be beaten by Kyoko's fans for his _impure thoughts_. Whether Tsuna fought or ran, he would still be crushed so weighing those options...He should definitely run. He could delay the inevitable pain he would receive by a day at most.

"Running away is unbefitting of a Mafia Boss."

Tsuna jerked and throws an accusing glare at where the voice was coming from. His mind blanked out when he saw that Reborn was wearing a...cheerleader outfit for girls with matching green pom-poms and long black hair pulled into a ponytail.

"What are you wearing?!" Tsuna exclaimed, pointing at the...weird-cosplaying baby with his index finger, a gobsmacked expression on his face. _'He looks like a girl…'_

"Ciaossu." Reborn greeted, waving his green pom-poms upward. Tsuna abruptly looked away from the view. No! He didn't like cute things! Well, maybe he did, but that was beside the point. The brunet immediately turned back to glare at the cosplaying baby when he remembered Reborn's words.

"Will you shut up about me being a Mafia Boss?"

"What will you do in your fight with Mochida?" Reborn said as the pom-poms turned back into the pet chameleon, and the green creature perched on the baby's shoulder. The brunet eyed the chameleon as it blinked at him. When it didn't repeat its action, Tsuna returned his gaze back to the Mafia baby.

"I don't want to fight Mochida-senpai." Tsuna answered with a grumble under his breath. With the choice of being beaten today or on Monday, he would obviously choose the former.

"So you're running away. You really are Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said with a disappointed look on his face. Tsuna wondered where Reborn was coming from here.

"I'm not running away. Mochida-senpai is the captain of Kendo Club." Tsuna answered as if it explained everything. "There's no use going to that _match_ when I know I'll lose." He couldn't help the bitter tone.

"Then would you want to be seen as a coward forever?" Reborn said. How did Reborn get back into his expensive black suit and matching black fedora without him even noticing? Tsuna eyed the suit suspiciously. Reborn noticed his inattentiveness, pulling the brunet out of it by punching to his right cheek, making him hiss in pain. Tsuna rubbed his bruised cheeks, glaring at the Mafia baby for hurting him again.

"Would you please stop being mean to me?" When Reborn didn't deem to answer, Tsuna hmph-ed and reached for the doorknob.

"What would Sasagawa think if you ran away from this match?" Tsuna froze his hand over the handle and stared hard at the door.

"She would think I'm a coward and believe what Mochida says about me." Tsuna said, frowning at the thought of Kyoko's opinion of him, but realized that Reborn was planning to force him to fight, even if it resorted in tripping him with guilt.

Reborn hopped down from his location to the brunet's uninjured shoulder. The weight suddenly felt heavy, oppressing even, and Tsuna thought it is weird. This feeling was different from earlier. This one felt dangerous, as if Reborn was weighing out the pros and cons of his answer. It was mildly alarming that this baby could be so manipulative. Tsuna closed his eyes and gripped the handle, pushing the door open.

The sudden brightness illuminating Tsuna's surrounding felt so light, like a sun shining through the darkest night, giving him the push and comfort he needed. But the brunet couldn't help feeling the darkness sipping in the sun's shadow like an overwhelming presence of manipulative and not to be trusted.

"Fine," Tsuna started with an annoyed look on his face, glaring at the baby sitting on his shoulder like he was sitting on a vehicle. "I will fight against Mochida-senpai."

Despite knowing and feeling manipulated, the decision felt so right at the deepest core of his very being.

 **To be continued…**

 **A/N: Kindly leave a review and criticism... *insert puppy look here***

 **Timeline:** This is set on June 23 (Saturday)


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows!~**

 **Shameless Advertisement:** Please read my other works I recently posted: _**Fractured Paths**_ **(KHR Fanfic)** and _**Withered Intention**_ **(or How they found a young man who was sleeping in a water prison and his connection to Byakuran [Harry Potter x KHR Fanfic])**

 **February 7, 2017: Betaed** by _**Pure Red Crane**_

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn so no suing…!

 **Chapter 10**

Tsuna wondered why he was walking towards a fight he would ultimately lose. Then he remembered that Reborn had guilt tripped him. Tsuna didn't fight back, but agreed because he knew that when Reborn, with his oppressing presence, had sat on his shoulder _that time_ , it was the only acceptable answer. Tsuna didn't liked it when Reborn made him second-guess his decisions, more like forced to comply, but the baby did and it annoyed him.

Tsuna stared ahead at the door to the gym and he paused from walking. _'I really should run away.'_ he thought in panic. Surely, he would be beaten to a pulp and he didn't want that, but why was he still going to that place?

 _("What would Sasagawa think if you ran away from this match against Mochida?")_

The brunet didn't like Kyoko in a romantic way like what Reborn had implied. Kyoko was only his classmate, though unlike everyone else, she didn't mock him. She even reproached Mochida this morning, despite how unnecessary it was. It only made Mochida hate him.

Kyoko was bright, a nice young lady with an innocent face that somehow reminded him of his late mother. She was so gullible and naïve, yet so warm. Tsuna shook the blooming image of the two women from his mind, not wanting to remember when Kyoko had looked at him with distrust on her face.

 _(_ _"She must think I'm a coward and believe what Mochida says about me."_ _)_

Tsuna remembered his answer. He also realized that he did care about what she thought of him, her opinion. Reborn really got him this time. Now that the brunet thought carefully about it, that might be the real reason why Reborn teased him about Sasagawa Kyoko.

How Reborn even knew of his small attachment to Kyoko, Tsuna still didn't know, but the fact remained that it was used against him. It proved that he really was Dame-Tsuna. If Reborn didn't ask that question, the brunet wouldn't even have realized that he cared for her. It was irritating.

Tsuna bit his bottom lip and walked towards his doom. His stomach was churning. _'I should run away. I really should.'_ he thought in panic. He should turn back and run away as soon as possible. Why was he going to fight Mochida when it was a lost cause? He would lose and then get beaten to a bloody pulp.

The brunet was standing in front of the gym. He only needed to take a few steps, a few more steps toward his doom. However, he stopped.

Why was he going to a fight a match he didn't want to go to, to a fight that he was forced to attend?

' _This fight wouldn't even have happened if Kyoko didn't reproach Mochida-senpai.'_ Tsuna immediately shot down that thought. He was fairly annoyed, but not with Kyoko, it was not her fault she _is_ so naïve.

He clenched his fist. _'Then why am I going to this match?'_

Reborn used Kyoko against him, but ultimately it _is_ his choice. He let Reborn's actions and words deter him from what he should have done. Now that he agreed, Tsuna wanted to back out. He should have done that from the start, shouldn't have stayed in that bathroom, should have gone home and slept instead of coming to a painful decision.

' _I should run away.'_

Tsuna stared at the gym, taking a step backward and turn on his heels-

 _("What would Sasagawa think if you ran away from this match?")_

-then stopped before he could even start running.

"I…" he started hesitantly. Why didn't he run when he could?

 _(The disappointed eyes of his mother stared at him. "Tsu-kun...")_

Tsuna didn't want to fight Mochida…but... The small brunet closed his eyes in thought. _'It looks like I have no choice. I even had another delusion of my mother...'_ Then Tsuna opened his eyes, a resigned look on his face as he walked towards his impending defeat.

 **~linebreak~**

"You have come, perverted stalker!" Mochida's loud voice erupted in the middle of the gym. Tsuna walked towards the center to meet his opponent. Looking around, he saw that many spectators had attended to watch the _show_. In the middle was Mochida, wearing his kendo gear.

On Mochida's left was his subordinate, holding two flags, a red and a white. His two other subordinates were supporting a set of matching body, head and hand gear with shinai atop it. Somewhere on the right side, Tsuna could see Kyoko with her brow furrowed downward, worry written all over her face and her hands clasped on each other as if in prayer.

When Tsuna arrived at the center of the gym, Kyoko looked in his direction with a worried frown on her face. Tsuna idly wondered why. The sight made his lips quirk into a smile, but it was a small one, barely noticeable.

"For stalking Kyoko-chan, I will defeat you and show where a scum like you belongs." Mochida started his monologue with his shit-eating grin, shinai pointed at Tsuna in accusation. The senpai looked like a knight facing off a dragon to save the princess. It was cliché and disgusting.

Mochida huffed proudly after that declaration and the school body cheered, screamed, and yelled in support. "Go, Mochida-senpai!"

During that monologue, Tsuna didn't say a word in his defense, didn't even try to explain that it was a false accusation. Saying anything would only be meaningless. The brunet glanced at the body and hand gear. He noticed that it was rigged based on the way the two subordinates were having a hard time lifting it up. He also saw that the subordinate who was going to judge was currently smiling like a little minion for his evil boss.

Just as expected, this match was rigged against his favor. Tsuna wouldn't win no matter what.

Tsuna walked to the gear he was supposed to wear for this match, but he only took the shinai. Even the wooden sword was heavy in his hands. Mochida gave him an annoyed look when he didn't wear the heavy body gear, but he snorted, "Doesn't make any difference."

"Since you're just a beginner, if you can get one point from me, you win. If you can't then I win." Mochida started in a loud voice, his shinai still pointed at Tsuna and his left hand resting on his hips, his shit-eating grin still present on his face. "Of course, the loser will do any single command given by the winner!" Mochida declared, followed by a boisterous laugh.

Tsuna made a glanced at Kyoko and to the laughing students then back in Mochida's direction. The brunet gripped the handle of the heavy shinai. He didn't have any hope of winning. He didn't even think that he could, but he hoped that he wouldn't get hurt too badly.

"Let's fight, Sawada!" Mochida said, both his hands holding the shinai.

"We'll begin the match in…three, two, one…fight!" the judge declared.

Then the match started with Mochida charging towards Tsuna with a war cry. The senpai was obviously going to swing his shinai in a diagonal position. Tsuna tightened his grip on the shinai and hurriedly lifted it in a vertical position with both hands, albeit with a little difficulty. He managed to block Mochida's attack, but it made him take a step back at the sudden force. His body immediately protested.

Tsuna gritted his teeth and pushed back. He tightened his grip on the shinai when he could feel his body weakening from the assault. At first, he thought blocking would be alright to ward off Mochida's attack, but he was wrong.

Mochida was really strong. The senpai continued making attacks and all Tsuna could do was block until the kendo captain had finally cracked his defense. With another hit, Tsuna could feel the assault starting to overwhelm him. While the numbness that had started spreading in his hands to his arms, Tsuna couldn't help but let go of the shinai when Mochida attacked again.

Tsuna cried out in pain as his hand let go of the shinai and it fell on the floor with a loud smack. Everyone was engrossed in watching the amusing battle.

Mochida raised his shinai to hit him on the shoulder. Tsuna felt the impact of the shinai hit his already bruised shoulder. It made him groan. Tsuna's face contorted in pain and stumbled on his feet. Then Mochida hit him on the ankle, making the brunet wince. He almost stumbled again, but he managed to remain standing with difficulty.

"Tsuna!" someone yelled his name. Before Tsuna could look towards the owner of the male voice, the brunet felt another shinai thrown in his direction. He used both of his hands to catch it.

Mochida brought his shinai for another hit, this one directed for Tsuna's head, but he managed to dodge by an inch, much to his relief. Tsuna grasped and repositioned the newly-acquired shinai, holding it with both hands.

"You managed to last this long, Dame-Tsuna." Mochida said a slight hint of surprise in his voice, arching his brows, but it was gone soon after, replaced by an evil laugh.

Mochida swung another attack, but Tsuna blocked it. Due to how strong the senpai was and how weak the brunet's body was from the pain, Mochida's overwhelmed Tsuna with another swing. It caught the brunet off guard, thus he fell to the floor with a thud, and he accidentally let go of the shinai.

Mochida stood on top him in a menacing manner, Tsuna on his back as if merely waiting for the inevitable attack he would receive. The brunet was too tired to move, the pain proving too much. Mochida smiled, knowing that he would win. With this, the senpai brought down his shinai for one last clean attack towards Tsuna's head.

"Go! Sawada-san, do your best!" Kyoko's sudden words of encouragement made both young men in stupor. Tsuna glanced at Kyoko and saw her looking at him determinedly. Then he glanced back at Mochida, who still had his arms raised upward, holding his shinai and still looking at Kyoko in frozen shock.

Tsuna took that chance to surprise Mochida by pushing him away, making the senpai lose his balance. Tsuna's opponent took a startled step back, granting the brunet a safe distance. Tsuna leaped towards his shinai with a wince, and then he grasped the weapon again with both hands, breathing deeply through his mouth and nose.

Tsuna took a big gulp of breath through his mouth. His knees quivered in pain. Tsuna wished to sleep once this was over. His body was drenched with sweat and his brows furrowed downward as he gripped his shinai tighter. He knew he wouldn't, couldn't, win. The difference in strength was too different.

The outcome of this fight was obvious, yet Tsuna still fought back fruitlessly. Maybe because Kyoko had cheered for him, as strange as it sounded.

Tsuna warily observed his opponent. Mochida was looking annoyed, mostly because Sasagawa Kyoko had cheered for Dame-Tsuna instead of him. "I'll win this match for Kyoko-chan's sake!" the senpai bellowed, adjusting his grip on the shinai and looking at Tsuna with focus.

Silence descended among everyone at that declaration, many thinking that Mochida was going to unleash his final attack to end the show. On the other hand, Tsuna readied himself for another bout of pain and bruises. It seemed defending wouldn't save him from Mochida's attack from now on.

"I'll defeat you, Sawada!" Mochida said in a deep and loud voice. With that sentence, Mochida leaped and attacked Tsuna furiously. The brunet winced when he felt that Mochida's attack was stronger than before and his hands were getting sore from gripping the shinai in defense. Tsuna's knees were growing weaker by the second, and his arms were growing heavier.

It would have been easier to let go of the shinai and accept Mochida's attack. Tsuna should let go then it would be all over. He knew that, but he still didn't do it. Tsuna curled his lips into a smile to what would be the result of this _match_ and Mochida let out a growl of annoyance at the sight before him.

Mochida glared at him in irritation before hitting the brunet's shoulder, unknowingly hitting the bruised shoulder again, making Tsuna let out a groan of pain. The agony made Tsuna falter and, with his defense momentary gone, Mochida rapidly backed him into a corner.

Tsuna hissed in pain when Mochida smacked his hand, forcefully making the brunet let go of the shinai. During that moment, Mochida had unleashed his next attack and smacked him squarely in the head again, making Tsuna buckle on his feet and groan in distress. The brunet fell on the floor with that final attack.

"And the winner is, Mochida-senpai!"

Tsuna heard the obvious result from the judge, followed by the loud cheering from his schoolmates. The noise grated on his nerves. Mochida's attack on his head was so strong that it caused a throbbing pain on his skull. It made him want to sleep on that dirtied floor right there and then. But he didn't.

Tsuna remained like that, wheezing for air, and already waiting for the fact that the words Mochida would utter would make his coming days worse than before.

The cheering noise wouldn't subside and Tsuna slowly got up from the floor with a wince and a gasp of air. Tsuna almost stumbled back when his knees suddenly buckled when he attempted to get up too fast.

' _I want to sleep…'_ he thought distractedly.

"I protected Kyoko-chan from Dame-Tsuna!" Mochida declared. It was followed by laughter and snickering.

Tsuna snapped his attention to that. Mochida's obviously triumphant declaration boomed and the cheering voices suddenly grew even louder with that bold statement.

"It was obvious that I would win this match!" Mochida laughed boisterously, while the student body agreed on his statement and loudly snickered amongst each other.

Tsuna remained still, his face closed off, not even wincing from being insulted from other students. He listened about how Dame-Tsuna had the nerve to stalk their dear Kyoko-chan and tainting her with his filthy presence, how it was laughable that Dame-Tsuna even had the nerve to ask Mochida for a fight and Dame-Tsuna being dame. Some of them were even murmuring to each other about what Mochida's command would be to Dame-Tsuna since the brunet couldn't do anything remotely right. Considering his life was full of mistakes, Tsuna silently agreed on the last part.

"Since I obviously won, Dame-Tsuna should obey my command and that is…" Mochida started with an evil smile directed at Tsuna. The brunet already knew what that _command_ would be. It was very obvious. There was just no way someone could be blind from Mochida's intentions. "Dame-Tsuna should never ever talk to Kyoko-chan from now on and apologize right now for having perverted thoughts about Kyoko-chan!"

Loud booming laughter followed, cheering and even talking about how Dame-Tsuna had no shame for even thinking about their dear idol, Kyoko-chan.

Tsuna noticed that it was two commands instead of one. He didn't really agree to that term before the fight started. Tsuna could argue that he didn't agree to this in the first place, but that wouldn't really help him. He inwardly sighed. It seemed he didn't really have any choice in the matter. Not like he would even argue in the first place.

Mochida was looking at him with smug expectancy.

"I…" Tsuna started in a show of hesitancy, biting his lower lip and averting his gaze towards his left where he saw Kyoko. Tsuna saw her shake her head once she caught his gaze, her lips pressed into a thin line, looking displeased over something. Tsuna idly wondered why Kyoko was looking at him as if telling him to disagree with Mochida's words and why she was displeased about something.

 _His mother would often have that same look on her face when he came home, dirtied from being pushed around_ … Tsuna's eyes widened slightly in stupor at that sudden thought. The brunet inwardly forced down that thought, _'Mom and Kyoko aren't the same. Of course, they wouldn't be, so why…'_

 _(His dear mother looked at him with a displeased look on her face, but not for him. It was for his bullies.)_ The image overlaps with Kyoko.

Tsuna blinked sharply to get rid of the sudden image forming on his mind and faced Mochida with a closed off expression.

"I apologize for having any perverted thoughts about Sasagawa Kyoko." Tsuna said, his head bowed down towards Mochida. He made unnecessary pauses in that sentence. His body kept wincing from the pain he suffered from his idiocy.

"Apologize to Kyoko-chan! Not to me, Dame-Tsuna!" Mochida yelled in a put off tone, not expecting Dame-Tsuna to apologize immediately after being told to. The senpai didn't realize that the protest would contradict his previous sentence. Tsuna lifted his head in confusion.

"But you said not to talk to Sasagawa-san." Tsuna didn't want to look at Kyoko. It would made him think about his mother and the similarity between them. He didn't want that.

"Don't be smart with me, Dame-Tsuna. Just apologize to Kyoko-chan now. Then never ever talk to her!" Mochida said with an irritated huff when he realized that Dame-Tsuna had outsmarted him. It didn't seat well with his manly pride.

Tsuna bit his bottom lip and faced Kyoko's direction, not looking at her face then he bowed down. He opened his mouth to apologize, only for it to snap shut when he heard her interrupt him before he could even begin.

"Tsuna-kun."

Tsuna slowly lifted his head and saw Kyoko looking at him with a determined look on her face. Gone was the displeased look, now replaced with determination. Tsuna realized that the student body had become silent, but it was thrown out of the window when the school idol's next words passed her lips.

"Can I call you that?" Kyoko still looked resolute. Tsuna idly wondered why she was acting like this. She was supposed to listen to her friends, so why was she acting so friendly towards him, despite everyone's insults?

"What?" Tsuna unconsciously asked with a bewildered look on his face. He was tempted to snap back, that she already called him that, but that sentence made his throat stop working. It was as if she uttered magic words that made him lose his voice.

"Kyoko-chan, you can't be serious! That's Dame-Tsuna, a pervert!" Mochida protested. Just like a domino effect, everyone started yelling in disagreement to her words.

If Tsuna didn't know any better, he would have thought that Mochida was forcing Kyoko to take back her words with peer pressure, but the honest surprised look on Mochida's face was real. The honey haired girl shook her head.

"I want to be friends with Tsuna-kun." That sentence wasn't uttered in a loud voice, but it silenced everyone. Then the silence disappeared, replaced with enraged words by everyone, not for Kyoko, but for Dame-Tsuna.

Accusations were thrown around about how Dame-Tsuna must have done something to manipulate Kyoko-chan, how Dame-Tsuna should stop acting so that Kyoko-chan would stop pitying him. But those accusations were unanswered as he stared at the naïve girl in front of him. Tsuna's eyes were wide with disbelief and his gaze never left Kyoko.

"Tsuna-kun isn't like that!" Kyoko said with pitch. It was as if she was personally offended that Tsuna was being slandered. That sudden loud voice coming from the school idol immediately interrupted everyone.

"Tsuna-kun isn't like that…" she said with a frustrated quality to her voice emphasized by the look on her face. Everyone was shocked. It was the first time she acted like this. The Sasagawa Kyoko they knew always smiled, talked to everyone nicely, even to Dame-Tsuna, much to the ire of everyone else. She never raised her voice. She always used her sweet, angelic voice. For Kyoko to suddenly raise her voice and look frustrated was a _first_. No one could ever think of her like that.

Tsuna wondered why she believed that he couldn't be like these accusations. Kyoko looked at him with distrust on her face, after all. This might be some kind of manipulation on her part, make everyone the bad guys and her the angel, but that thought was immediately squashed from his mind when he realized that the brunette expression couldn't be faked.

There was no way it could be like that, but it was and it bewildered Tsuna even more. Why was she defending him now…? It only served to confuse him.

Kyoko walked towards Tsuna, making him take a startled step back. In a way, it was his sign for her not to walk towards him, but she continued on her path. Everyone could only look at her with varied looks of surprise.

"Sorry for addressing you in such a manner, but it's alright for me to call you that, right?" Kyoko said in front of him. She had that worried yet determined look on her face. Tsuna could only stare at her in silence. He never thought that this naïve and gullible girl wouldn't listen to everyone else.

"Then you should call me Kyoko-chan." She had a smile on her face when he didn't answer. One would think his silence was an agreement, but it was not.

Tsuna didn't want to call her that. It would make them look like friends. It made him wonder when and what made her become like this. They weren't friends, so her defending him now, despite everyone else words, confused him. The girl he knew would succumb to peer pressure.

But Kyoko defending the brunet now would only result in more pain and he didn't think he could handle any more for the afternoon. And her presence would only make Tsuna compare her to his mother too.

Tsuna shook his head in response. "I…don't…" _'Don't call me that.'_

"The disciplinary committee is here!" Someone cried out in distress. With that warning, everyone immediately scattered in different directions. A few students yelped in panic and some were even cursing aloud. They would be beaten to death if they were caught crowding by the scary president of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee.

With mass panic, Tsuna immediately dashed away, taking his chance to get away from everyone else.

Meanwhile, Reborn gazed at his dame student with unreadable eyes then to the small girl who had defended Tsuna from her peers. The brunet wasn't able to use the Dying Will Bullet, but with the active presence of Sasagawa Kyoko in Tsuna's life, Reborn could now start with his plan. Though there was still his side project for Dame-Tsuna.

His lips curled upward into an amused smirk.

He would just have to wait and see if Tsuna would take the bait, and with a few more push in the coming days, Tsuna would take it willingly.

 **To be continued…**

 **A/N: Kindly leave a review… *insert pleading puppy look here***


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thanks for leaving reviews, favorites, and follows.** This was **Unbetaed**.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn so no suing…!

 **Chapter 11**

The brunet opened his eyes with a jerk, and before he could even have any rational thought. He had already made a mad dash towards the bathroom. Tsuna emptied his stomach loudly and with each heave, his stomach kept churning and his eyes stung with painful tears. He kept throwing up everything as his stomach protested and ached for release.

He couldn't think at that moment. All he registered was the dizzying ache on his head and the churning of his stomach as if being blended. As his action dimmed, the burning ache on his throat grew, making his body ache for blissful water.

Tsuna inhaled loudly with eyes closed, his head tilting upward with that motion and exhaled while willing his body to continue that action.

There was now numerous thought running through his mind all at once but he forced himself to focus on the feeling of the slowly cooling air through his throat and nose in a large bulk. However, his distraction remained fruitless. His thought remained captive on his mind, like a domino at the starting line. As the domino fell, he gritted his teeth, making him lower his head, uncaring that some strands of his hair was almost touching his vomit and he could smell how filthy it was.

The brunet's hand didn't fumble as he turned the faucet on with slightly shaking hand, letting the cold water run down atop his hair. It was cold and he liked the sensation of cold water splashing onto his hair as if washing him clean.

He remained like that for few minutes, allowing the cool sensation to lull his mind into nothingness but it only dimmed. Tsuna's thought was still caught and it wouldn't go away.

Tsuna lifted his head up, his soaked hair dropped water droplets onto his shirt making it wet and clung to his sticky skin. As Tsuna gazed at his reflection absent mindedly, he noticed that he looked like he was crying with the way the droplet cascade from his hair to his eyes then to his chin but knew it was only water.

' _Pathetic.'_ The brunet insulted on his mind as he peered at his reflection. There was a displeased frown on his face along with that thought. Then he abruptly looked away, finding the tiles more amusing to stare.

He crouched and sat down, his back leaning on the cool tiles and he stretched his legs slightly apart, letting the cool temperature of the tiles seep on his skin. Tsuna sighed almost happily after that as he closed his eyes and slowly fell into a rest. Not caring that he was sleeping sat upright with his back on the wall and the sound of the water running continued.

Tsuna's ears perked up a little when the tap water suddenly stopped but he was already far gone into his slumber to fully realized that someone had turned the faucet off.

Reborn silently stepped towards the brunet who almost looked relaxed in his current position. With the way, Tsuna's body was in a relaxed state, his hands on both his side unclenched and head tilted to the side. It made the brunet looked like he was experiencing a blissful sleep full of happy dreams. However, the brunet wasn't and Reborn knew that. There were creases near the brunet's brows, his eyes closed tightly in imaginary pain and his lips parted taking irregular breathing. Every now and then, Tsuna's fingers would twitch in a show of distress and his brows would pinch together in obvious pain.

It made Reborn slightly curious what did Tsuna _see_ in his dreams. Then he shook off his curiosity. Reborn expected that Tsuna was having a nightmare about his deceased mother. There was no other explanation than that. There was another explanation but the hitman knew it wouldn't cause nightmare, _yet_.

Reborn still stayed despite knowing. It wasn't because he was worried about his student but due to the fact, the hitman was mapping every expression, every twitch the small child did. As he stared at the almost vulnerable child, because that was Tsuna _is_ , he suddenly thought about his ongoing side project. It was somewhat irrational of him, to push a mere child but knew that in all practicality, it would make his student stronger.

And that was his goal.

The hitman almost took a step forward; towards the brunet's hair but he refrained from such action. All he did was a small twitch of his fingers before abruptly spinning on his heels and turning away from the scene. The tutor's expression was unusually blank.

 **~linebreak~**

" _The number you have dialed is either unattended or out of coverage area. Please try your call later."_

The brunet let the hand holding onto his phone rest onto his side when he received the same automatic answer. Before abruptly blinking and lifting his phone then pressed the call button for another try. The bright screen illuminating the word _Nee-chan_ as he dialed.

When the call he made met the same mechanical answer, he immediately pressed the end button with slightly more force than necessary.

' _I'll try again next time.'_ He concluded with no other choice as he closed his eyes before getting up, grabbing his wallet, keys and pocketed his phone. With his nee-chan unavailable, he would need to distract himself and staying coped in this house, despite feeling sore, wasn't acceptable and would only lead to thoughts of his deceased mother and how this house was where she was sh-

His mind abruptly halted from thinking when he tripped on his feet that made him hit his kneecap on the door. He noted the fact that his clumsiness reared its ugly head to distract him. It made him think that his body was, for once, was in accordance to find distraction.

As he straightened himself, batting away imaginary dust on his person, he walked downstairs in a normal pace. It just showed that he wasn't thinking on his action as he went through the motion with passive face.

"Where are you going?"

Reborn's sudden voice interrupted his automatic action of walking towards the door, leading to outside. The familiar squeaky voice made him pause from turning the handle of the door, making the brunet turn on his back to where the voice was coming from before answering one word with almost tired voice yet with hint of minor annoyance. "Out."

Tsuna registered the fact that Reborn was standing atop the shoe rack wearing the same clothes the first time they met and the shape-shifting slash weapon-shifting pet lizard on the brim of Reborn's fedora as he answered. He didn't care what the baby was going to respond that was why when the answer left pass his lips, he turned back towards the door, turning the handle open.

Bright clear blue sky, greeted him upon walking outside of his house. The refreshing look of the sky made him look upward before locking the door behind him with a click of the keys.

Tsuna didn't know where to go, maybe a place where he could be alone on his thoughts. If he did that, his painful thoughts would only pester even more. Knowing this, what the brunet needed was a place where he couldn't hear his thoughts or his voice, somewhere obnoxious and loud. If this was Tokyo, Tsuna could easily find it on almost every corner but here, well, he could still find it but as he didn't really sought out that kind of place, it'll take time.

With Tsuna's destination made up, he passed through the gate and locked it for safety before heading to the direction of the crowded Namimori district. However, before he could start his way onto his destination, the brunet felt a weight on his shoulder that made him immediately wince.

"Reborn." Tsuna said the name in acknowledgement of the infant sitting onto his shoulder that had deliberately pressured his bruised shoulder blade after hopping on it. Reborn looked at him with boredom, before raising his brow questioningly.

"Where are we going, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn asked with genuine curious emotion on the infant's black eyes. The sincere emotion made the brunet avert his gaze as he answered evasively. "Out." Just the same that those words left, he realized that Reborn had said _we_ making his eyes widen with growing annoyance. He didn't want Reborn with him, not an infant, not anyone.

"I am not taking you with me!" He said with an annoyed almost raised voice by the end. It was different on his outward emotionless motion from the time he woke up on the bathroom floor.

Tsuna threw a heated glare, but not overly, at the infant that remained sitting on his shoulder without a care in the world. Yet, he could feel that Reborn had pressed deeper onto his bruised shoulder blade even more so with his chubby hand that he recoiled in pain. It felt like Reborn was digging his bruise, making it sting.

"Reborn," He bit out with a pained look towards the infant and the said infant gave him an amused smirk before pulling his hand away. The brunet immediately knew that Reborn did that on purpose, it made him inwardly bristle, and threw an accusing look at the baby.

With the pressure on his bruised shoulder blade gone, his shoulder relaxed but he still threw an accusing glare at the infant riding on his shoulder. His eyes narrowed in obvious distaste. "Why did you do that for?"

"So where are we going, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn said without answering his question and it definitely irked him. He also noticed that continued annoying usage of _we_ , making him glare at the fedora-clad infant.

Tsuna narrowed his eyes before huffing, and slightly tilted his chin away from Reborn's direction before responding his declaration with a displeased frown on his face.

"I am not bringing you with me!"

Reborn raised his eyebrow inquisitively. It looked like a bored action coming from the infant with his chin tilted slightly upward and his eyes looking at the brunet.

"And why not?"

It was merely a polite inquiry. However, the brunet felt there was danger on that seemingly harmless question that he immediately clamped shut, not answering in any way or form before turning straight ahead, facing the road, and started walking with heavy shoulders.

He'll ignore the dangerous infant, was the conclusion the brunet reached after that.

 **~linebreak~**

Tsuna was sitting in a crowded café. He absent mindedly steered the strawberry shake that he had ordered. He looked around, obviously noting that everyone seemed to be having fun, though there was some who were lonesome but quite busy. His observations were interrupted by the sound of sipping in front of him, making him sigh. His tutor was sipping cappuccino shake loudly and it only served to irk him more. Not only was Reborn here with him, the baby had charmed several waitress, and the crowd that were cooing at the fedora-clad became larger. It just made their table crowded with strangers that sometimes would ask him if Reborn was his brother and asking the Mafia baby for a hug.

The apparent crowd was a great distraction to sneak away. But the first time he tried to, Reborn had turned on his direction and asked him where he was going. Obviously, he lied convincingly about going to the restroom, someone even offered to take care of _his brother_ during that time. It was going so well, he would sneak when he get on the restroom but that evil baby had decided to go with him. He almost snapped at Reborn during that time, but managed to reign in his frustration, as it was not wise to show his annoyance in front of strangers.

Tsuna still tried to sneak away even when he was on the restroom but before he could even attempt. Reborn had flicked his forehead and said, "Where do you think you are going?" The brunet knew instinctively, that he would have to retreat from his attempt, lie about even attempting, before trying again later. He did exactly that and now he was thinking of how to sneak away. His excuse of going to the restroom would surely fail, that much he knew that was why he'll choose a different tactic.

And that's why he was steering his strawberry shake, seemingly playing due to boredom but inwardly thinking of how to get away.

"Dame-Tsuna." The voice of the evil baby made him attentively look at the infant with a confused expression. With a blink, he let out a _huh_ before he caught sight that the crowd around Reborn was dispersing.

"It's about time we leave." With that declaration he hurriedly stood up and exited the place with hurried pace. He almost looked like he was running away but despite walking in a fast pace, Reborn, the baby, still managed to keep up with him, or rather, had leaped to his shoulder.

Looked like, sneaking away from Reborn without any distraction would be hard. Just when sneaking away from a baby did become hard.

 **~linebreak~**

Tsuna heatedly glared at the fedora-clad baby before him. The brunet's lips pressed into a firm line, and he was glaring with apparent distaste towards the evil baby that had followed him _everywhere_.

He didn't know what was up to the baby. Tsuna obviously stated that he didn't want Reborn's companionship but the baby had insisted to follow him around. Despite him trying and failing to sneak away and finally it left his mind reeling.

It left his mind baffled at the fact that he couldn't sneak away from a _baby_! And frustrated because it meant, he wasn't able to get time for himself.

There was the sound of doorbell and a muffled voice. Tsuna didn't know who it was, so he ignored it. It was probably a businessman and it was better to ignore them completely instead of opening the door. Those greedy businesspersons tend to sprout obvious lies that he was tired of hearing.

"Tsuna." The infant piped during the brunet's musing. Tsuna dubiously turned at the infant with distaste and a raised eyebrow but he tried not to be angry anymore. It was getting exhausting to keep up his distaste slash anger for the mafia baby that had ruined his day.

"What is it?" He spoke with normal yet wary tone.

"That was my order. Get it."

 _The heck?_ He blinked with confusion. As that thought passed on his mind, the brunet was hit and flung towards the hallway with force that made him cry and groan with pain.

He immediately stood up despite his aching body and cursed out with angry, puffing most likely bruised cheeks. "What the heck was that for?!"

If only he saw that attack, he could have evaded, well tried, but the thought count that he should have seen that attack instead of getting caught off guard. However, he did and the pain isn't going away soon, now that his bruises had increased and his old bruises got worse when they are healing nicely. He inwardly cried, taking a step forward to his room, only to get interrupted by a wheezing bullet that grazed his cheek and embedded onto the flat surface before him.

When he noticed what happened, his eyes widened with fear making him leap to his feet with a shriek. "Hiee…!"

Tsuna audible gulp down after his outburst before turning on his back and towards the baby that had shot him. He had a scared look on his face but with accusing look on his eyes.

Reborn was holding onto a green gun, and that gun turned back, or into, a chameleon that climbed on the infant's hand to the brim of his fedora. The sadist baby looked at him with amused eyes before saying once again, now with an added insult. "Get my order, Dame-Tsuna."

The brunet didn't want to obey. He was about to open his mouth for a vehement refusal but Reborn's eyes glinted, and something dark flashed onto those black eyes. Danger, that was the feeling he get during the time. It made him stutter a feeble answer. "F-Fine."

With a nod afterwards, he turned tail from that danger zone.

He didn't understand why he felt danger, but Reborn's dark eyes wasn't something he didn't want to see. That baby was different, very unlike all other infants he had seen in his life. If all mafia babies were like that, he would be utterly terrified even more if he had to deal with adult mafia men. They would be surely much worse than Reborn.

When he was about to open the door, he paused from that action. It made him wonder why Reborn even looked at him like that to make him do something. He sighed. It was probably Reborn being trigger-happy. If his inside churned, it was probably at the fact he was afraid of the danger that Reborn had posed a while ago.

"Take-out delivery for Sawada Residence!"

It was the same man from Friday. Tsuna blinked at the coincidence before schooling his expression back into a polite smile. Though, he knew that he was failing at his act due to the pain on his body but the man seemed to be oblivious of it.

Tsuna noticed that the man kept smiling at him and he inwardly grimaced. He should try not to seduce older man in a place like Namimori due to the off chance that he might meet the same person and that was his current dilemma. The brunet grimaced because it felt humiliating because someone in Namimori knew or had the slight idea about his _activities_. He decided that he would act as if what happened the other night didn't happen. He could do that.

"Here is your order!" The older man that had fairly looking skin, tall height and muscled body, if what he noticed was correct since he couldn't see under the clothes, said with a customer-friendly cheerful voice. His darkish brown and almost wild looking hair were swept by the wind, he lacked baby fats on his cheeks and his grey eyes looked at him, totally seeing him with a captivated look on his face.

The man was attracted to him. Tsuna surmised that it was the case and it only made his decision of acting to strengthen. He hoped that the man was morally restricted and wouldn't make obvious advance on him.

The older man handed him the plastic bag containing the take-out with his customer-friendly smile but the man had slight blush marring his cheeks and seemed to be embarrassed. The brunet gulped nervously. The man almost looked innocent with those blush and he felt that this man was attracted to his face but embarrassed to do anything to a mere _child_.

"Hey."

Tsuna opened his mouth and he inwardly froze as panic set in. _'What the heck? Why did I open my mouth?'_

The older man turned to him with a curious expression. There was a kind smile on his lips but the man seemed to be restraining himself. It was probably from flirting because Tsuna acted as if their exchange of contact number didn't happen. "What is it?"

Tsuna inwardly bit the inside of his cheek. He shouldn't have opened his damned mouth but he did and Tsuna didn't even know what to say in the first place. He could tell the other man to fuck off but that would be cruel because the man was obviously trying not to act on his _feelings_. What did the man even see in the first place to make him attracted? It was merely a seductive smile on a cute innocent face, it was normal but the man was affected despite being, well, not a pedophile. He sees the difference, since he didn't last time and he didn't restrain of not showing his seductive side, Tsuna had to deal with the man that developed a crush on him from that encounter.

He remained silent when that question left the man's lips. He should shake his head that would surely confuse the older man and hopefully make the man notice that he wasn't interested or confirm the man's unasked question and dump him right after.

"I still have that piece of paper."

When those words left passed his lips, his heart froze and his mind blanked.

The man seemed to have perked up from that sentence. And Tsuna felt bad that what he would say next would be hard. But he didn't want an annoyance, especially when the man knew where he lived. The man might stalk him. Though the older man seemed kind enough not to act on that extreme action, however, it was better safe than sorry.

He opened his mouth, readying for the harsh words he would descend upon the other. "Sor-"

"Tsuna."

Reborn's sudden squeaky voice interrupted and it startled him, making him whip his head towards the direction where it was coming from and exclaimed. "Reborn! What are you doing here?"

His eyes widened in alarm. It made him confused because Reborn was supposed to be at the kitchen doing whatever the infant want not here, when he was about to say something important to the older man.

Reborn glanced at him, made a sidelong glance at the other man, that were looking at the baby with a confused frown on his face, before peering at him. His heart almost leaped due to suddenness of Reborn's appearance.

"It was taking you too long to get back so I decided to check on you." Reborn answered. Tsuna noticed that the infant glanced at the plastic bag on his other hand before the infant walked back inside the house and left parting words. "Get inside already before that food gets cold, Dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna's eyes widened in annoyance at that command. He glanced at the evil mafia baby's back with annoyed glint on his eyes then to the older man. Obviously, he didn't heed Reborn's words and choose to talk with the older man. After all, he needed to say what needed to be said. If he didn't, it would lead the older man on and he shouldn't do that here in Namimori, where everyone knew everyone.

There was also the fact that Reborn was an annoyance, it only made him see clearly that Reborn would keep interrupting in his life and he would surely need a distraction.

He remained silent in thought. The man wasn't a pedophile, only attracted to him, that's what he noticed. The man wouldn't stalk him, the man was even embarrassed and probably not a push-over. Still, leading the man was horrible especially when he knew he wouldn't have feelings for anyone.

The fact that the man was attracted to him, it could also mean that the man was actually a budding pedophile. But the man was probably attracted only to him.

He looked at the older man. Tsuna doubted on what to do. He shouldn't lead anyone on especially when he didn't reciprocate the feelings. He wasn't even attracted to men, well, he appreciate when a man was good-looking but that's all there was to it. On his line of work, he needed to appreciate beauty and tolerate ugly older man. That was in Tokyo, right now, he was in Namimori. He wasn't an unknown, he was Dame-Tsuna. There he could do anything he wanted, here his action was restricted because of Reborn, that frustrating evil mafia baby.

Tsuna abruptly looked away, while chewing on his bottom lip. He didn't want to lead the man on. He didn't even like the older man or male in general, well, he also didn't like women, so his sexuality was still dubious but it was of no importance. Though, he appreciate beauty, and he was embarrassed when talking about his nonexistent lovelife. His sexual preference might come later on in his life but right now he didn't like anyone, male or female.

Sasagawa Kyoko was different. He cared for her and that was different to being attracted to her romantically.

"I still have that piece of paper." He repeated the same words he uttered earlier before Reborn's sudden appearance. But this time, he stared at the older man directly onto the eyes. The man's eyes widened, obviously taken aback on why he repeated that line but the man didn't interrupt.

"Can I be your friend?"

The man smiled, and the man looked at him with a smitten look on his face as he answered, "Sure."

Tsuna gave a seductive smile while blush marred his cheeks as he kept staring at the older man in the eyes.

He didn't want to lead the man on, but it didn't mean he couldn't be friends with the older man. Though, the meaning of friends was obviously sketchy, and he already knew that this man would be a great _friend_.

"I'm Tsuna." The brunet introduced with bright innocent yet playful smile, his eyes showing hidden amusement. He raised his left hand, since he was holding the plastic bag on his right, for a handshake. The man was confused at the orthodox greeting but went along with the business-like introduction. During that time, Tsuna's smile didn't disappear from his lips and the man grasped the brunet's smooth hand tighter. The man was about to pull from embarrassment but the younger brunet held tighter, and the man was totally enamored at the beautiful angelic smile Tsuna had that he didn't want to let go.

It was a start of a beautiful _friendship_.

 **A/N: Please read and review.**

 **Timeline: June 24, Sunday**


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